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TLbc ipreacbcr anD Ibis Sermon* A Treatise 

on Homiletics. For the use of private stu- 
dents and schools. 8vo, cloth, pp. 581, $2.25. 

' The best book will be that which tells most plainly 
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Zbc Boctrtne ot Cbrietian :flSapti0m* An 

Exposition of its Nature, Subjects, Mode, and 

Duty. 12mo, cloth, pp. 308, $1.25. 

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public reach." — The Congregationalist. 

TLbc XTborn in tbe jflesb ; or, A Eeligious 

Meditation on Affliction. With an Introduc- 
tion by Bishop John F. Hurst, D. D., LL. D. 
12mo, cloth, pp. 107, 60c. 

*' This book is strong in the best sense, and has the 
virtue of making strong its Tea.ders.'"— Bishop John F. 
Hurst, D. D., LL. D. 

W. J. SHUEY, Publisher, 

United Bretlirou Publisliiiia: House, BAVTON, OHIO. 



The Thorn in the Flesh 



THE 



Thorn IN THE Flesh 



OR 



A RELIGIOUS MEDITATION ON 



AFFLICTION 



/ 



By J. W. ETTER, D. D. 



With an Introduction 

BY 

BISHOP JOHN F. HURST, D. D., LL. D. 



dayton, ohio 
United Brethren Publishing House 
W. J. Shuey, Publisher 
1892 . 



MAR 19 182^ 



^ 



0^ 

f I 



,\i^^ 



Copyright, 1892, 
By W. J. SHUEY, Publisher. 

All Rights Reserved. 



The Library 

OF Congress 

WASHINGTON 



DeMcation* 

TO 

**Zbc /ftan ot Sorrows anD Bcauaintc5 witb (Brlet''; 

TO EVERY SUFFERER OF HIS LOVING FLOCK; TO 

EVERY GROUP OF WEEPING MOURNERS; 

TO EVERY PIOUS INVALID; 

Ho l^ou, 

WHO WOULD RATHER '^SUFFER AFFLICTION WITH THE PEOPLE OF 
GOD, THAN TO ENJOY THE PLEASURES OF 
SIN FOR A SEASON," * 

THIS LITTLE BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, 

BY ONE OF YOUR NUMBER — 

JLbc Butbor^ 



PREFACE. 



This little book is an expansion of an editorial which 
appeared not long ago in the Quarterly Revleiv of the United 
Brethren in ChriM, and, by request, is here reproduced in 
book form, with some alterations and several additional 
chapters. 

For twelve years the Lord has suffered me to carry 
about in my body the thorn of a lingering disease. Many 
others, no doubt, have a better right to write on this 
subject than I, for they have suffered more and longer than 
I have; but few have ever recorded their experience, or 
taken the time to write for the benefit of others the lessons 
learned during their pilgrimage of grief. No doubt, much 
that is valuable in the school of suffering has thus been lost 
to religious literature, and therefore I have some apology 
for sending out this little book. 

Diversified as are the kinds and degrees of mortal suffer- 
ing among the children of God, they all have a common 
experience in *' bitter-sweet." The life of every affiicted 
Christian is like Samson's riddle: "Out of the eater came 
forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness." 
The unconverted Philistines will never be able to explain 
it, but the suffering people of God can easily understand 
it. It is for them that I have written these pages. 

The Author. 
January 15, 1892. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



PAUL S THORN. 

PAGE. 

The Indescribable Picture of Paul's Revelation — The 
Thorn Given as a Restraint to Excessive Emotions 
of Joy — What was the Thorn in the Flesh? — Are 
Afflictions of Divine or Satanic Origin? — ''My Grace 
is Sufficient for Thee" — "My Strength is Made 
Perfect in Weakness" — The *' Power of Christ " upon 
Paul 17 

CHAPTER II. 

MORAL DANGER OF ILL HEALTH. 

The Physical Condition of the Body Affects the Moral 
Condition of the Mind — 111 Health Tends to Dan- 
gerous Despair and Moral Weakness — Sometimes 
Leads to Suicide 34 

CHAPTER III. 

REMEDIES AGAINST THE DANGER OF ILL HEALTH. 

The Spirit Master of, not Slave to, the Body — Culti- 
vate a Cheerful, Hopeful Spirit — Afflictions are 
Blessed Mysteries — Improve Afflictions by Pra^^er... 39 



xiv Contents* 



CHAPTEE IV. 

BENEFITS OF ILL HEALTH. 

PAGE. 

The Statement Sounds Paradoxical — Hindrances are 
Helps — Intellectual Benefits of 111 Health — Spiritual 
Benefits of 111 Health — Scriptural Teaching — The 
Sickness of Jesus — Suffering Develops Heart Power 
— The Helpful Ministry of Sickness — All for the Best. 53 

CHAPTER y. 

DIYIXE HEALING. 

Sickness per ss an Evil — The Scriptural Doctrine of 
Disease — Sin and Disease Associated — Christ a Healer 
of Disease — Argument from Reason and History — 
Can God Heal Diseases? — Has God Healed, and is 
He Healing Diseases To-day? — Have AVe Reason for 
Believing that God Will Heal Every One in Answer 
to Prayer? — Conchision 82 



INTRODUCTION. 



The world has its deep, unwritten sorrows. But to the 
Christian there are no real sorrows. His sublime faith 
transmutes all things into blessings. The author of this 
work writes out of a full heart, his own experience hav- 
ing produced all the pages of his consoling appeal to follow 
pilgrims toward the gates of pearl. I knew him in the 
days gone by, w^hen he was a student of the Word, and, 
with good reason, looking for a long life of stirring labor. 
God has ordered otherwise. He has had his discipline, but 
has had strength enough to use a busy pen, which has 
instructed and consoled large numbers of Christian work- 
ers and believers. 

Ko one can read these pages without receiving comfort 

and a great wealth of instruction from them. I commend 

them to all who must wait in chambers of sorrows and 

tears, and see their brothers out in the busy harvest field. 

God means these pauses for our larger faith and brighter 

crown. This book is strong in the best sense, and has the 

virtue of making strong ks readers. May it have readers 

in all the shadow^s of our darker human life! I commend 

it for universal use, as a fountain of devotional feeling, of 

intimate scriptural knowledge, and of cheerful acquiescence 

in His will who will say to his trusting child, everywhere, 

"It IS enough; come up higher," 

John F. Hukst. 
Washington, D. C. January 1, 1892. 



THE THORN IN THE FLESH. 



CHAPTER L 
Ipaura XLboxn. 



II. COEINTHIANS 12:1-10. 

Paul was favored with extraordinary visions 
and revelations from God, above those which weie 
ever granted to any other human being in the 
flesh. John was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, 
and from a lonely isle of the ^gean 8ea were 
disclosed to him many profound mysteries of the 
future, which he afterwards wrote out in the lan- 
guage of men. But Paul had been received into 
closer fellowship with the Deity, and there were 
revealed to him profounder mysteries of heaven, 
which were unutterable and incommunicable 
upon earth; for he heard "unspeakable words, 
which it is not lawful for a man to utter.'' As 
no human pen ever tried to describe the three 
darkest hours on earth, when Christ hung in 
his silent agony on the cross, so no mortal tongue 



17 



18 Cl?e Cf}orn in tf^e ^lesl?. 

could express the " exceeding greatness" of Paul's 
revelations; and when, after more thau fonrteeu 
years of silence and meditation thereon, he at- 
tempted to put the glory of his vision on parch- 
ment, he failed, and dropped his pen, as if to 
say, ''I give it up/' It was a theme fit only 
for the utterance of the highest order of celestial 
intelligences, and suitable only for the ears of 
the most sanctified saints, 

Paul's spirit, disembodied (as it seemed to him), 
passed through the Jirst heavens, where clouds 
float upon clouds in yonder sky; passed the sec- 

m 

ond heavens, where the astronomer grows giddy 
in his flights of vision through the unexplored 
depths of the azure blue; higher still, into the 
"third heavens,^' where none but the redeemed of 
the Lord can enter. In this highest heaven there 
was a higher and holier place, called ^^ Paradise," 
the most secret place of the Most High, where 
God dwells in light which no man can approach. 
Into the visions and revelations of this inner 
court of the holy of holies Paul's spirit was 
transported, where he saw indescribable sights 
(visions), and heard unutterable sounds (reve- 
lations), too transcendently awful and too abso- 
lutely unlawful to be discoursed upon outside 
of heaven. Returning to earth to reinhabit 



pauFs ^I)orm 19 



the body vacated for a season, he was naturally 
everjoyed " by reason of the exceeding greatness 
of the revelation" that was given him. 

There are some emotions of joy too overwhelm- 
ing for humanity to bear. History informs us, 
that "in the time of the great South Sea specu- 
lations in England, many, overjoyed by their 
success, became insane. At the restoration of 
Charles II., a number of the nobility were so 
affected by the recovery of their titles and estates 
that they became diseased, and in a short time 
died. Leo X., one of the most renowned occu- 
pants of the Papal chair, was so rejoiced by a 
victory somewhat unexpectedly gained over his 
enemies, that he sank beneath the excitement. 
The heir of Leibnitz, the celebrated mathemati- 
cian, on finding that a chest, filled as he sup- 
posed with papers, contained a large quantity 
of gold, became so excited by the discovery that 
he was seized with a fatal disease of the heart. 
The celebrated Rittenhouse, Pennsylvania's earli- 
est astronomer, was selected to observe the transit 
of Venus across the sun's disk, in order that the 
correctness of many of the astronomical calcula- 
tions niight be tested. Having made all neces- 
sary arrangements and preparations, he watched 
earnestly for the expected transit; and when at 



20 ' ^tje Cljorn in tl?e ^ksij. 

the calculated moment he saw the dark boiiiul- 
ary of the planet obscure the edge of the 
sun's disk, he was so overcome with emotion 
that he swooned away, and his assistants were 
obliged to finish the observations. The immortal 
Newton, when he approached towards the com- 
pletion of those calculations which demonstrated 
his discovery of the grand laws of nature, and 
which gave him an imperishable name, and 
when he saw that his conjectures were about 
to be verified, was so deeply afl'ected that he 
was obliged to leave to others the work of 
completing his calculations. Near the close 
of the Revolutionary War, the attention of Con- 
gress and the whole American people was 
directed toward the armies of Washington and 
Cornwallis, and some movement was daily ex- 
pected having a powerful bearing upon our 
country's liberty. When the messenger arrived, 
bringing the joyful intelligence that Cornwallis 
had surrendered, the doorkeeper of Congress fell 
dead upon the floor of the hall." 

If such be the effects of excessive joy arising 
out of earthly surprises^ what must be the con- 
suming emotions resulting from a revelation 
of the unseen and eteryial? If an astronomer 
swoons, and a Newton sinks, overpowered by a 



paurs Cl}orn. 21 



j'eyelatioii of a few laws of the material world; 
if a patriot dies, and Pope Leo sinks, overcome 
by joy over the triumph of his country; if the 
unexpected discovery of a chest of gold, or the 
restoration of rank and estate, can produce such 
vehement emotions as to destroy the vital action 
of the body, what about the unutterable " visions 
and revelations^' of the heaven of heavens that 
burst upon Paul's mortal view! 

Lest he should be " exalted overmuch" through 
the '^ exceeding greatness of the revelation," 
there was given to Paul "a thorn in the flesh'' 
— something to check his unbounded emotions 
oi joy; something to restrain his overwhelming 
ecstasy — to chill his fiery fervor, and cool his 
consuming zeal. He had had joy overmuch; he 
must now have a little wholesome humiliation, 
to temper his spirit, lest it become too violent 
a force to dwell in his body of clay. 

When the boiler is overcharged with steam, it 
may explode, and needs to have some side-valve 
opened to let off the surplus steam. There are 
exalted moments in our lives when we see the 
heaveiis open and the angels of God ascending 
and descending. Charles G. Finney, in his auto- 
biography, states that at one time he was so 
happy he thought he would have to die. The 



22 Ct?e Ct)orn in tt)e ,f!esl}. 

Holy Spirit so overpowered him at his conver- 
sion that, as he said, '^I conkl feel the impression 
like a wave of electricity going through and 
througli me. Indeed, it seemed to come in waves 
arid waves of liquid love. It seemed like the 
very breath of God; it seemed to fan me like 
immense wings. I wept aloud with joy and 
love; and I don't know but I should say I liter- 
ally bellowed out the unutterable gushings of my 
heart. These waves came over me, and ov'Cr me, 
and over me, one after another, until I recollect 
I cried out, ^Lord, I cannot bear any more'"; 
like another Fletcher, who, under an impulse 
of indescribable bliss, exclaimed, ''Lord, stay thy 
hand, or this vessel will burst." Paul also had 
received too great a blessing; so there was given 
to him a tormenting ''thorn," as an outlet to 
keep him from exploding with excessive joy. He 
had been thrilled with the divine aiflatus — he 
must now be buffeted by a " messenger of 
Satan"; he had had a revelation from heaven— 
he must now have a chastisement from hell. 

This was a wholesome mixture. A mother 
who was caressing her lovely child with pet 
names and kisses, asked, " What makes you 
so sweet, my darling?" to which the smiling 
pet replied, " Why, mamma, when the Lord 



Paul's tri?onu 23 

made me, I guess he put a little thugar iii.'^ 
Sometimes tliere is too much of sweet in the 
cup of life, which needs a little flavor of the 
bitter or sour to make it palatable, and w^hole- 
some, and just right. 

What was ''the thorn in the flesh"'? 

We believe the day is past for entertaining the 
opinion of Luther, that it was a spiritual temp- 
tation, such as evil solicitations, or blasphemous 
thoughts; or the opinion of Chrysostom, that it 
was personal hostility, such as Paul often encoun- 
tered in his travels. The terms used to describe 
Paul's weakness plainly express that the ''thorn" 
was not an infirmity in the mind or spirit, but 
^'in the flesh." The only plausible theory is, that 
it w^as some bodily afiliction — some kind of pain- 
ful, chronic disease, aggravating in the extreme 
and evidently incurable. It annoyed him more 
than all his troubles mentioned in the preced- 
ing chapter (II. Cor. 11); and after medical 
treatment by Luke, the physician, and three 
tremendous efforts and failures in prayer^ for 
its removal, he submitted to the will of God in 
a lifeloug affliction, and for over thirty years 

1 Prayed *' three times," after the custom of the Jews to 
pray three times for any important blessing. Christ prayed 
three times for the removal of the cup. (Luke 22:45; 
Matt. 27:42-44.) 



24 Cf?e ^i)om in tl?e ^lesf?. 

gloried in his infirmity more than in his won- 
derful revelations. 

What may have been the particular ailment? 
Several scriptural references seem to point to 
ophthalmia, or some disease of the eyes^ as the 
probable affliction. 

Excessive light, falling suddenly upon the 
eye, is often injurious to that organ. Paul, on 
his way to Damascus, was overpowered in mid- 
day by a dazzling debacle (avalanche) of light 
from heaven, above the brightness of the sun 
(Acts 26:13), whi^cli so utterly blinded his vis- 
ion (Acts 22:11) that for three days he was 
left without the use of his eyes. (Acts 9:9.) 
The Lord miraculously restored his eyesight, 
the effect of which seemed to Paul similar to the 
falling of scales from his eyes. (Acts 9.18.) The 
healing was partial, leaving a permanent defect 
in his eyes for disciplinary purposes. (II. Cor. 
10:10; 12:9.) Hence, years after, he apologized 
to the council for resenting, contrary to the law, 
the insult of Ananias, the high priest: "I wist 
not, brethren, that he was the high priest," im- 
plying that he mistook him for some one else 
through impaired eyesight. (Acts 23:5.) For 
this reason, also, he was obliged to employ an 
amanuensis to write his letters, and mentions 



Paul's Ct?orn. 25 



only one exceptional case as a thing unusual. 
(Gal. 6:11.) Convbeare thinks ''large a letter^' 
has no reference to the Epistle at all, but only 
to ''the size of the characters" in which he had 
written the letter. It was in this autograph 
letter that he especially refers to his " infirmity 
in the flesh," and praises the Galatians for their 
sympathy in his aflliction, by saying: "I bear 
you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would 
have plucked out your own eyes, and have given 
them to me" (Gal, 4:15); that is, exchanged 
their perfect eyes for his diseased ones. 

He talks like a blind man. He thought that 
the world stood in the way of man's seeing 
Christ; and that the natural world must be 
eclipsed in order to have true spiritual vision. 
(11. Cor. 4:4.) Therefore, his calamity had 
really revealed a brighter sunshine than the 
light which it had put out. (II. Cor. 4:17, 18.) 

This impediment, apparently, located in the 
most indispensable organ of the human body, 
w^as the source of painful annoyance to him 
and of commiseration by his friends as long as 
he lived. Like patient Job, he never murmured 
under his affliction, but rejoiced, saying: "Who 
is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, 
and I burn not? If I must needs glory, I will 



26 ^tje Cf?orn in tlje ^leslj. 

glory of the things which concern mine infirm- 
ities" (11. Cor. 11:29, 30), deeming himself 
honored to be counted worthj^ to sufl^er with 
Christ, that thereby he might ''be glorified 
with him." 

Are afflictions of divine, or satanic origin? 

Paul called his infirmity ''the messenger of 
Satan to bufiE'et me." 

Sufltering, sickness, deformity, and all bodily 
diseases are abnormal operations in the realm 
of human life — the eflects of sin, the poisonous 
deposit of which runs through the blood of 
many generations as messages are transmitted 
through telegraphic wires. Diseases are mes- 
sages from hell. They are invented and pat- 
ented at headquarters and sent upon all men 
both good and bad. Paul called his "thorn" 
an "angel of Satan," and that "thorn," or dia- 
bolical angel, was "in the flesh." Our afflictions 
are from the same source. A boil is a devil 
in the flesh; a toothache, a devil in the tooth; 
a headache is a devil ache; men say they "catch 
a bad cold," when they mean they catch a bad 
devil; a fresh wound in the flesh is a tempta- 
tion to "the messenger of Satan" to enter it 
maliciously and bufifet it sore with swellings, 
weeds, and gangrenes. Satan may enter the 



Paul's Cl?orn. 27 



body as well as the soul, and make it a pest — 
a den of physical torments. All the painful dis- 
orders of our bodies are oppressions from the 
Devil (Acts 10:38); and to be sick, is to be 
(so far as the fact of sickness is concerned) 
under his dominion. (Luke 13:16.) Hence, 
Paul writes to the Thessalonians: ''We would 
have come unto you, even I Paul, once and 
again; but Satan hindered its'' (I. Thess. 2:18); 
that is, disabled him through the ''thorn." Why 
did Paul glory in the buffetings of this messen- 
ger of Batan rather than in the exalted revela- 
tions he had received from heaven? Why 
rejoice, not that God was in his soul, but that 
the Devil was in his body? Does the evil one 
sometimes serve us such good turns that we 
need thank God for the ministry of his Satanic 
Majesty? 

But this doctrine does not seem to correspond 
with the commonly received and popular opinion 
that afflictions are from God — divine chastise- 
ments sent by Heaven for the trial of our faith 
or the correction of our life, designed to bring 
fruit unto righteousness. This opinion, no doubt, 
is founded on such scripture as, " Whom the Lord 
loveth he chasteneth"; "The Lord hath chas- 
tened me sore" (Psalm 118:18); "Because he 



28 Ct?e ^i)oxn in tlje ^leslj. 

hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me'^ (Job 
80:11); '^Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me" 
(Psalm 119:75); ''For he doth not afflict will- 
ingly, nor grieve the cliildren of men" (Lam. 
3:33); ''Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict 
thee no more" (Nah. 1:12); and other passages 
which seem to assign afflictions to a divine ori- 
gin. "The Lord struck the child that Uriah's 
wife bare unto David, and it was very sick" 
(IL Sam. 12:15; also, IL Kings 15:5). The 
explanation of these apparently conflicting rep- 
resentations, on the one hand making sickness 
come from Satan, and on the other making 
them come from God, is to be found in the 
fact that all things whicli happen by the j^er- 
mission of God are spoken of in Scripture as 
being done by God. All things, good and bad, 
are under God's control, and nothing happens 
without his permission. For reasons unknow^n 
to us, God gives Satan power, through second- 
ary laws and forces, to produce evil (Isa. 45:7); 
and Satan afflicts us because God allows him to 
do it, and in this sense God does it. This is 
the only way in which all evil in the w^orld 
can be accounted for and explained. God over- 
rules Satan's work for our good, and thus makes 
"the curse a blessing prove." 



paurs Cl?orn. 29 



1. ^'My grace is sufficient for thee/' is the ex- 
planation. Grace was a substitute for Paul's loss, 
commensurate to its pain and grief. He gave 
up a bodily blessing, and thereby gained spirit- 
ual grace. He lost nothing by the exchange. 
He received more than an equivalent for his 
sacrifice. It is better to have no eyes and have 
grace, than to have two good eyes and no grace. 
The lust of the eye sometimes drowns men in 
perdition. It is better to pluck out an eye, if 
it offend us, than to have two eyes to be cast 
into hell fire. I do not know whether the defect 
in his eyes was a reminder of some former sin 
committed by that organ before his conversion, 
or whether it served as a preventive of future 
sin. The punishment upon Dives' parched 
tongue in Hades may indicate that the greatest 
sin of his life was the sin of the tongue, which, 
"settetli on fire the course of nature; and it is 
set on fire of hell." Whatever may have been 
the moral cause of Paul's affliction, God meant 
to teach him that it was better for him to have, 
than not to have, the thorn in the fiesh; that he 
could accomplish more with it than without it. 
Therefore, God did not give Paul what he asked 
for, but in lieu, gave something hetter — grace. 
We ask for health, and sickness comes upon 



30 Ct?e tEt?orn in tl?e ^leslj. 

ns; we ask for prosperity, and adversity gathers 
around us; grief abounds that grace may mucli 
more abound. God answers prayer, not always 
in our way by giving us Avhat we ask for, but as 
a Fatlier, who gives better than we know. "If 
a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a 
father, will he give him a stone?" But, in our 
shortsightedness, we ask him for a stone, and 
he gives us, not a stone, but bread instead; w^e 
ask for something which, if granted, would be 
to us like a serpent, but in mercy he gives us 
a fish; we ask for a scorpion, and he gives us an 
egg. Is he not the best of fathers? And now 
remaineth health, wealth, grace, — these three; 
but the greatest of these is grace. Let every- 
thing else go, only so grace remains. Our frail 
bark may be heavy-laden with sorrow and 
laboring with the storm, and hope may have 
left the helm long ago; but, blessed be God, 
through the snapping cordage of the sinking 
ship there comes this charming cadence from 
beyond the skies: "My grace is sufiBcient for 
thee." It is wafted to my ears with every rush- 
ing wind, and with every rising wave. It tills 
my soul with the birds of heavenly music, and 
gives wings to my drooping spirit. What though 
the man on the lookout cries, "Breakers ahead!" 



pauFs €i)ovn. 31 



There is another and a sweeter voice — it is the 
voice of my Beloved, saying to me, ''My grace 
is sufficient for thee." 

2. "For my strength is made perfect in 
weakness.'^ God has no use for our strength. 
He has more power than he knows what to 
do with, and need not borrow from us. The 
miUionaire need not go around begging a penny 
from the pauper. What God wants is conse^ 
crated iceakness — a broken and a contrite heart, 
— not strength added to strength, but helpless- 
ness casting itself on almightiness. God does 
not select the giants of flesh to display the 
might of his power, but chooses the "weak 
things of the world to confound the things which 
are mighty; . . . that no flesh should glory in his 
presence" (I. Cor. 1:27, 29). When he wants 
to rout Goliath, the champion of the Philistines, 
he does not select one of the sons of Anak, 
but employs a shepherd Boy, a beardless youth 
whom men call "a stripling." When God 
sent Gideon's army against the enemy, he re- 
duced it from thirty thousand to three hundred, 
lest they might trust in the arm of flesh instead 
of in the living God. So when God wanted 
to prepare Paul to become a mighty preacher 
and an apostle to the Gentiles, he crippled his 



32 Cf?e Ctjorn in ttje ^leslj. 

strength by putting a thorn in his flesh. In 
this infirmity was the hiding of his power, the 
secret of liis wonderful success, whereby he 
could exclaim, " When I am weak, then am I 
strong^'; God's strength being made "perfect 
in w^eakness.'' lie could not have been made 
strono; without first beino; made weak. 

3. ''Therefore will I rather glory in my in- 
firmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon 
ine"; literally, "that the power of Christ may 
cover me over as a tent.^^ The imagery is beau- 
tiful. The power of Christ was spread over his 
bodily infirmity,, like the curtains of the taber- 
nacle that enclosed the ark of God. God's 
power was round about .him like a pavilion of 
glory, so that wherever he went that pillar of 
fire went with him. Had the thorn gone, the 
power of Christ also would have gone. The 
one could not be present without the other. 

They were complementary to each other. 
Though weak in body, he was strong in spirit. 
Physical inability and the power of Christ were 
antipodes in Paul's ministry; weak at one end, 
mighty at the other. This caused him to say, 
" We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that 
the excellency of the power nlay be of God, 
and not of us" (II. Cor. 4:7). "I was with 



panVs trtjorn. 33 



you ill weakness, and in fear, and in much 
trembling; and my preaching was not with 
enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demon- 
stration of the Spirit and of power." Therefore, 
Paul gloried in this sanctified weakness, which 
was the power of God unto salvation, more than 
in his unutterable revelation of the divine glory. 
The disposition to rejoice in sorrow and to 
glory in affliction is doubtless the highest attain- 
ment in the divine life; and few there be who 
reach it. Oh, for the baptism of power upon 
our many infirmities, until there come beauty out 
of ashes and strength out of weakness! Twenty 
pennyweight of piety is not enough; but if God 
break and bless the few loaves of our weakness, 
there will be enough and to spare. 



CHAPTER IL 

^oral 2)anger of 511 Ibeattb* 

There are some diseases that so affect the 
mind and spirit that the sufferer at last falls 
into a sort of malicious melancholy. 

I cannot describe the subtle relation between 
physiology and psychology, or the sympathetic 
action at the point where the body touches the 
spirit; but this I do know, that the physical 
condition of the body affects the moral condi- 
tion of the mind. The brain is the point of 
contact and communion between mind and 
matter. The eye is the instrument of seeing, 
and the ear the instrument of hearing; so the 
brain is the instrument of thinking and feeling. 
Whatever injures our eyes or ears, injures our 
seeing and hearing. Whatever affects the brain, 
affects the reason, sensibility, and will. 

The healthful action of the mind requires a 
good brain, and a good brain requires good 
digestion and good circulation; for on these 
depend the renewal and replenishing of the 
wasting tissues of the brain. A happy man 

31 



moral Danger of 3II f^ealttj. 35 

is one who has a healthy mind in a healthy 
body. Well-being requires healthy organs of 
body. The wise physician will take into ac- 
count the condition of the mind, in order to 
prescribe intelligently for the body; and the 
minister must often inquire into the condition 
of the body, in order to prescribe intelligently 
for the soul. "A sleepy congregation is oftener 
the sexton's fault than the preachers/' said one 
who spoke on the effect of impure air on our 
spirituality. To make a house of worship more 
attractive, give us more grace and more oxygen. 
Depression of spirit comes from poor ventila^ 
tion, a poor digestion, or a diseased liver 
Despondency is a question of the bile. A 
peevish fellow, with the chronic "blues," is 
nothing but a bilious man whose liver fails to 
do its work of removing from the system the 
dead tissues, but allows to circulate through 
the blood a worthless refuse which can no more 
feed the brain than the ashes of a burnt coal 
can feed the fire. As a result, the entire mental 
machinery is impaired; the head is dull and 
stupid, the temper irritable, the imagination 
afflicted with serious forebodings of evil, and 
the whole mood becomes inert and melancholy. 
This mental state, if continued long or re- 



36 C{?e trtjorn in tf?e ^lesl?. 

peated often and at short intervals, brings on 
dangerous despair, and weakens the power of 
resolve and firmness. 

Every man is a secret society to himself. You 
cannot tell what troubles lurk beneath that 
bhink face — what destruction all the while is 
going on within. As there are insects that 
prey upon trees and shrubs, and eat out the 
pith and scoop out the heart, while the rind is 
left; so there are heart-eating cares, that honey- 
comb the happiness and suck out the sweetness 
of life while yet the outward appearance shows 
not the devastation within. Swarming ills can 
penetrate deeper into the heart, and scrape it 
harder, than heavy crosses. As a tree which 
has been hollowed out in the stem is thereby 
rendered less able to stand the fury of the gale, 
so by these heart-breaking cares our strength 
is weakened, and we become less able to bear 
the heavy burdens of life. 

To some, life is a sunshine on a bank of 
flowers — health rubicund, skies flamboyant, 
days resilient; but in a great many lives there 
are not so many sugars as acids. The annoy- 
ances and vexations overpow^er the successes. 
There is a gravel in almost every shoe. 

Sometimes sickness comes not single-hapdec^. 



moral Danger of 3II fjealtl), 37 

Tu our personal afflictions are added bereave- 
ments and losses — private and public misfor- 
tunes. When these come together, like two seas 
meeting, and trouble after trouble rolls upon us 
as wave upon wave, our feet do well-nigh slip. 
We feel, at such times, that the burdens of life 
are heavier than we can bear, especially when 
it seems we must bear the weight all alone; 
when we feel a terrible isolation and a solitari- 
ness in our sorrow, like that of David — ''I 
looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there 
was no man that would know me: refuge failed 
me; no man cared for my soul," 

At such times we look only at the dark side 
of life; drink only the acids of evil out of the 
cup of affliction, instead of the sweets out of 
the honeycombs of God's promises; misinter- 
jjret the providences of God, murmur beneath 
the chastening rod, cherish evil temptations, 
and at last begin to meditate suicide. 

Afflictions have in themselves no sanctifying 
efficiency. Religiously improved, they do us 
good. Wickedly spurned, they do us harm. 
The same fire that purifies the gold, also de- 
stroys the flower. Affliction is a fire, which in 
God's hands is designed to purify the lives of 
his people, but when unblessed, produces only 



38 Cl?e CI}orn in tl?e ^Usi). 



desolation. It depends on the relation of the 
sufterer to Christ, as friend or foe,— on the recep- 
tion given to grief, whether it be a blessing 
or a curse. 



CHAPTER III. 

1Reme5fe0 againat tbe Danger of 3^11 Ibealtb* 

Though the spirit's temper, like mercury in 
the thermometer, is influenced by the state 
of the material house in which it dwells, yet 
the spirit is superior to the body, and need 
not be its slave, but ought to be its master. 
The less must not rule the greater, but vice 
versa. Reason, clad in the garb of royalty, must 
not cast its pearls before swine. That spark of 
intelligence and immortality breathed into us 
by Almighty God, must not succumb to the im- 
perfections of mortal dust. Hence, the resources 
for the remedy lie within us and our God. No 
medical prescription can reach farther than the 
body. I am prescribing for the soul. 

1. Cultivate a cheerful, hopeful spirit. But 
you answer: "How can I change darkness into 
light, or extract sweet out of bitter? There 
are real sorrows in my experience. Shall I take 
no account of them? Shall I work myself into 
a false belief that they are all imaginary? And 
can I truthfully deny at the time I am sufiering 



40 Ctje Ct?orn in ttje ^lesfj. 

pain, that I am sufiering evil?" No; sick- 
ness is ail evil, and God does not ask us to call 
our evil good, but to compare our good loith our 
evil^ and see which preponderates. "Every per- 
son receives more good and less evil • in this 
world than he deserves/^ says A. A. Hodge, in 
'^ Outlines of Theology''; and hence there is 
always more reason for praising than for com- 
plaining. There are some sorrows in life, bu,t 
infinitely many more blessings. Why remember 
our few afflictions, and forget our many mercies? 
In passing through sunny meadows, burrs and 
thistles stick to us persistently, while flowers 
fade in our hands. David said, " Bless the Lord, 
O my soul, and forget not all his benefits." One- 
half of God's blessings we know not; the other 
half we forget. But David asked his soul to 
remember at least some of the Lord's benefits, 
and not to forget them all. It is easier to forget 
a benefit from God, than to forget a trial from 
him; ^et the benefits from God outnumber the 
trials a hundredfold. We hide our blessings 
under a bushel, but set our trials on a hill. 
Strange that a single trial should hide from our 
view all our blessings that follow it, whereas a 
single blessing is by no means enough to hide 
the trials that precede it. Our evils set over 



2?emebte5 against ttje Dangers of 3^1 ^ealtf?* 41 



against our good are. few and insignificant. 
"Behold therefore the goodness and severity of 
God'' (Rom. 11:22). The severity, how short! 
the goodness, how long! In the destitute desert 
and bitter region of Marah, God would not suf- 
fer his covenant people to remain longer than 
one day; but in the green pastures, and beside 
the sweet wells, and among the delightful palm 
groves of Elim, he permitted them to encamp 
for twenty days. So, generally, in the experi- 
ence of God's people, not only is every Marah 
relieved by an Elim, but ''the time to laugh" is 
twenty times as long as "the time to mourn," 
"For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but 
with great mercies will I gather thee. In a 
little wrath I hid my face from thee for a mo- 
ment; but with everlasting kindness will I have 
mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer" 
(Isa. 54:7, 8). 

Reflect, again, that your state is never so bad 
but that it might be worse. A man fell and 
broke his leg. 'His friends came to commiser- 
ate him on his bad luck, but he replied, "I 
thank God it wasn't my neck." Another, after 
having enjoyed uninterrupted health for fifty 
years, in his fifty-first year was stricken down 
with a painful aflliction, and under his suflering 



42 trtje Ct?orn in tfje ^lesl?. 

he at last became impatient and fretful, until he 
reflected that God might have given him fifty 
years of sickness and suffering and only one of 
health. Others have sufiered more than you. 
Think of Job, if you want to see your superior 
in sufieringj excelling yours as the sufierings 
of Christ excelled the sufferings of Job; and 
yet he (Job) said, "What? shall we receive 
good at the hand of God, and shall we not 
receive evil?" 

Every loss in life is compensated by some 
gain. There are heavy burdens and bitter 
problems in your life, no doubt; jet there are 
so many counterbalancing sweets and uplooks 
and upliftings that make your life about as full 
of gladness as falls to the lot of any being. 
The ups and downs of life, like the hills and 
valleys in nature, border on each other, and, as 
it were, arise out of each other. Our temporary 
depressions are met by corresponding eleva- 
tions. 

"For every cloud, a silvery light: 

God wills it so. 
For every vale, a shining height, 
A glorious morn for every night. 

And birth for labor's throe; 
For every storm, a calm. 



Hemebies against tf?e Dangers of 3U i^ealtt). 43 

**For snow's white wing, a verdant field; 
A gain for loss. 
For buried seed, the harvest yield; 
For pain, a strength, a joy revealed; 

A crown for every cross. 
No chilly snow, but safe below, 
A million buds are sleeping." 

The inequalities of life are more apparent 
than real. Said a genial spirit: "Some people 
are always finding fault with nature for putting 
thorns on roses; I always thank her for putting 
roses on thorns/' The reason that some "growl- 
ing, crossgrained pessimists," like Thomas Car- 
lyle, think that "life is not worth living/' and 
has more of bitter than of sweet in it, is 
because the greater part of their ills are imag- 
inary. When a friend condoled with an old 
man regarding the many troubles of his long 
and checkered pilgrimage, lie said: "What you 
say is too true. I have been surrounded with 
troubles all my life long; but there is a curious 
thing about them — nine-tenths of them never hap- 
pened !^^ I recommend cheerfulness. Cheerful- 
ness is to the physical health what sunshine 
is to the vegetable world. Dejection is like 
mildew — withering, wilting, shriveling, wasting. 
Other things being equal, a cheery, plucky man 



44 Ct?e tn?orn in ttje ^lest). 

with a sickly body will live longer and more 
happily than a professional grumbler with a 
Herculean carcass. Shakespeare says, "A light 
heart lives long''; and Solomon says, "A merry 
heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken 
spirit drieth the bones" (Prov. 17:22). Many 
of our ills never exist anywhere except in our 
imagination. Because of visionary fears and 
groundless forebodings, the real burdens of to- 
day are not as many as the anticipated burdens 
of to-morrow. (Prov. 22:13.) 

"The hardest of all griefs to bear 
Is a grief that is not sure.'* 

"Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take; 
The clouds ye so much dread 
Are big with mercy, and shall break 
In blessings on your head.'' 

"A merry heart maketh a cheerful counte- 
nance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is 
broken" (Prov. 15:13). ''AH the days of the 
afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry 
heart hath a continual feast" (Prov. 15:15). 
''In the world ye shall have tribulation: but 
be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" 
(John 16:33). "The joy of the Lord is your 
strength" (Neh. 8:10). 



Hemebies against tfje Dangers of 3U i^ealttj^ 45 

0! there are Elysian Helds, radiant with the 
light of heaven, within the domain of your 
experience, w^hich yon have not yet discovered. 
A cultured, observant eye, a calm and happy 
spirit, will discover threads of gold interlacing 
the homespun, somber web of life, and green 
spots dotting the dreary wilderness, w^iere others 
w^ould see only dull monotony and barrenness. 

Try to be happy. Take lessons in smiling. A 
cheerful disposition is one of the happiest of mor- 
tal blessings. Like mercy, it is twice blessed; 
it blesses him that gives and him that receives 
The face may be very plain, but there is some- 
thing in a smiling countenance which we can- 
not resist, and its cheery smile sends the blood 
dancing through the veins for very joy; while 
the morose man, the scolder and complainer, 
the hectoring critic and fault-finder, casts a 
baneful shadow into the brightest avenue of life 
and makes the whole neighborhood an un- 
healthy locality. The man who moved from 
Grumble Corner up to Thanksgiving Street 
found the air better, the sunlight more cheer- 
ful, the company happier, and living more 
delightful. His food tasted better, his sleep was 
sweeter, and his digestion improved. One of 
the first conscious acts of an infant is to grasp 



46 Ct?e Ct^orn in tije ^lest?. 

at sunbeams with his chubby hands; so all 
through life we should be seeking the sunlight 
of the sky and the sunlight of the heart. 
When will we learn that there is more health 
in one sunbeam than in a whole atmosphere 
of clouds and gloom, and that "it is worth a 
thousand pounds a year to have the habit of 
looking on the bright side of things"? 

Get out of the shadow into the sunshine of 
your life. Meditate upon the goodness of God. 
Do not continually brood over the ills of life, 
but often recount your many blessings, and 
learn the grace of sweet contentment. I almost 
said, " It is impious for a good man to be sad." 

2. Reflect that our afflictions are blessed mys- 
teries. 

Says E. C. Gordon: ''The background of 
all Hght is darkness; so the background of all 
know^ledge is mystery." In the solemn, somber 
darkness of that background lies the solution 
of every trial. It is best not to have these 
enigmas solved now. A life that is not envel- 
oped in profound mystery, does not know how 
to cultivate the graces and enjoy the blessings 
of faith, and hope, and love, and trust, and 
submission, and humility. God is in every thick 
cloud of mystery, and teaches us wisdom out 



ilemebtcs against ttje Dangers of 3U ^ealttj. 47 



of the whirlwind of adverse providence, Wlio 
can master the mystery of affliction? "Sir, 
thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well 
is deep" (John 4:11). 

Dr. Fuller said: "I once looked upon the 
wrong or back side of a piece of tapestry 
(needlework). It seemed to me like a piece 
of confused nonsense — nothing but thrums and 
threads, and knots of all sorts, and sizes, and 
colors, all of which signified nothing to my 
understanding. But on looking on the reverse 
or right side, everything fell into proportion 
and harmony, and there stood figures of men, 
and trees, and cities, so that it was a history, 
not written with a pen, but wrought by a 
needle." So God is workmg out the beautiful 
picture of our life behind the canvas; but now 
the wrong side is projected toward us, w^hich 
seems only a mass of confused mystery; but 
some day God will reverse the picture, and 
show us his beautiful designs. Much that is 
inexplicable here will be made plain there. 
Then the wisdom and goodness of God will be 
written on every page of life that was painful, 
and will shine in every experience that was 
dark. Our understanding of things will be cor- 
rected, when we shall unravel the tangled skein 



48 Cl?e Ctjorn in ttje ^lestj. 

of providence, and see how our trembling de- 
scent into the trough of the sea was necessary 
to our ascent to the crest of the waves. Then 

*' Out of ovtr stony griefs, 
Bethels we'll raise," 

Let us keep silent and wait for more lights 

"Blind unbelief is sure to err, 
And scan his work in vain; 
God is his own interpreter, 
And he w^ill make it plain." 

What God doeth we know not now, but we 
shall know hereafter. 

"When the mists have rolled in splendor 

From the beauty of the hills, 
And the sunshine, warm and tender, 

Falls in kisses on the rills; 
We may read love's shining letter 

In the rainbow of the spray, — 
We shall know our trials hetter, 

When the mists have cleared away" — 

When the scales have fallen from our eyes, and 
we see no more through a glass darkly. 

In one of the European galleries of fine arts 
there is a celebrated German picture called 
''The Cloudland." As you enter the door of 
the room and look at it, hanging on the distant 
wall, you do not know what to make of it. It 



Hemebtes against tt?e Dangers of 3U E}calti}, 49 

seems like one great cloud — nothing else but 
blackness of darkness. As you go a little 
nearer, it seems like many clouds gathered to- 
gether. When you go still nearer and get the 
right standpoint, it changes like a dissolving 
view, and what seemed at first to be a mass 
of gloom is now " a multitude of the heavenly- 
host." All the clouds are angels, and there are' 
hundreds of angel faces smiling on you, and 
hundreds of angel wings hovering over you, and 
hundreds of angel arms outstretched to embrace 
you. Let us not forget to entertain afflictions, 
" for thereby some have entertained angels un- 
awares." Our sufferings are a mysterious picture. 
We look at our sorrows at a distance and they 
seem like a cloud. Oh! that God would some- 
times open our eyes as he opened the eyes of 
the servant of the prophet at Dothan, that 
we might see the multitude of angels swarm- 
ing about us in the dark days of trial, when 
we feel discouraged with the battles of life. 
Oh! sorrow is only another name for the royal 
chariots of heaven paved with love, in which 
the Man of Sorrows comes driving down the 
darkened sky with every axle glowing; and 
from his horn of plenty, pours the oil of glad- 
ness so abundantly into our broken hearts that 



50 Ctje Ctjorn in ttje ^lesb. 

there is no room for mourning any more. Said 
a minister to a suffering Christian, "How can 
you stand all this trouble?" She answered, 
"Why don^t you ask me, 'How can you stand 
all this joy?''' 

3. Let us improve our afflictions by prayer. 
"Is any among you afflicted? let him pray" 
(James 5:13). Paul took his thorn to the 
throne of grace. This was the best thing he 
could do with the tormenting thing. Though 
beyond the skill of medicine, it was not beyond 
the skill of a mighty Jesus. While a diver is 
down in the sea in the diving-bell, he could not 
remain long under the heavy pressure, were it 
not for his constant communication with the at- 
mosphere above, whereby he is furnished with a 
constant supply of fresh air. So, if we suspend 
prayer while in the sea of sickness, we cut off 
our necessary supplies from above, and, instead 
of bringing many a gem out of the deep waters 
of affliction, we will sink under our burdens, 
and be submerged in the briny depths. 

Invalidism is an evil, and can only be aggra- 
vated by evil. If we fret and fight against it, 
we drive the deeper into our flesh the goads 
against which we vainly kick. If we yield to 
impatience and anger, and neglect prayer, Satan 



Hemebtes against tlje Dangers of 3U ^ealtt), 51 

will take hold of the deserted rudder (prayer), 
and wield the ungoverned helm, and drive before 
him the infuriated and imbruted man. Daily 
prayer for patience and submission to the divine 
appointment, lightens our sorrows, extracts the 
poison of the viper's sting, pours healing oint- 
ment into our sore and bleeding wounds, mends 
the fragments of a broken heart, and sweetly 
rests our weary heads upon the three pillows of 
infinite power, infinite wisdom, and infinite good- 
ness. Not that we can make our afiiiction no 
afiliction; but it is in our power to take off the 
edge of it by prayer and praise. Prayer can 
change a curse into a blessing, or make the in- 
strument of evil the instrument of good. 

What if the heart is made to smart and 
bleed beneath the wine press of many troubles; 
a rainbow may yet come out of your tears! 
The billows that threaten your seagirt path may 
carry your Lord on their crest. God giveth 
clouds, but he also giveth songs in the night. 
He giveth trials and he giveth triumphs. In 
the valley near Chamouni, travelers see stars 
by day. In the vales of suffering, sanctified by 
prayer, we can see the star Jesus in his trans- 
figured beauty. I think there is a great defect 
in the education of every Christian who has 



62 Cl?e Ct}orn in ttje ^lest?. 

never had a sharp trial. The richest graces 
grow out of those ploughed fields where God 
puts the ploughshare of affliction deep into the 
very subsoil. 

I counsel you to tarry often at the mercy seat. 

" Come, ye disconsolate, where'er you languish, 
Come, at the shrine of God fervently kneel; 
Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish — 
Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal." 

Who would be sick without a sympathizing 
Savior —a man of sorrows and acquainted with 
grief? 

"O Thou who driest the mourner's tears! 
How dark this world would be, 
If, when deceived and wounded here, 
We could not fly to Thee. 



*'Ohl who would bear life's stormy doom, 
Did not thy wing of love 
Come, brightly wafting through the gloom 
Our peace-branch from above? 

*'Then sorrow, touched by Thee, grows bright 
With more than rapture's ray; 
As darkness shows us worlds of light 
We never saw by day!" 

"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe 
in God, believe also in me." Faith in Jesus is 
the cure and preventive of all trouble. 



CHAPTER TV 

asenet!t0 of 511 Ibealtb. 

Leaving others to speak of the blessedness 
of good health, let me write of the blessedness 
of sickness. 

Spurgeon says, "I venture to say that the 
greatest earthly blessing that God can give to 
any of us is health, icith the excerption of sick- 
v.ess^ To many, sickness is better than health. 

To speak of ill health as a blessing, or help, 
sounds nonsensical and paradoxical. Why? 
Because abnormal states of mind or body cause 
us to view life through a distorted, discolored 
medium. He who looks through a blue glass 
will see only blue objects. In fact, a sufferer 
is usually incapacitated for judging of God's 
goodness. Grief darkens the thoughts. Night 
breeds terror and distrust j everything looks 
tempestuous and frightful. Let but a thick 
cloud overspread the sky, though the objects 
about us continue as they were, yet the appear- 
ance is so altered that sense will hardly acknowl- 
edge it to be the same world. Such a change 



64 Cl?e Cl?orn in tl?e ^f lest?. 

is there iii the soul when sorrow has clouded 
it^ that we are unable often to see the bright 
light there is in the clouds. (Job 37:21.) 

Thomson, in his second canto, '' Castle of 
Indolence/' makes a mistake when he says^ 
'^ Health is the vital principle of bliss/' Many 
think and ^peak of blooming and bounding 
health as the greater heritage of heaven's fa- 
vored few. Everybody covets good health, and 
nobody prays for any of the chronic ills of 
mortal flesh to be visited upon him. 

We have so often been taught to regard sick- 
ness as the result of the violation of some 
hygienic or divine law, which has its roots in 
our inherited depravity, that we think it almost 
a sin to be sick, and are often commiserated as 
the unfortunate ones whom God exposes -to 
public chastisement for some grievous disobe- 
dience. Yet, now, as in the days of Christ on 
earth, we may ask concerning one's bodily 
infirmities, " Who did sin, this man, or his 
parents, that he was born blind," or rheumatic, 
or scrofulous, or consumptive'^ And the answer 
of the Master comes back, "Neither hath this 
man sinned, nor his parents [as the immediate 
cause of this particular trouble]: but [this 
came] that the works of God should be made 



Benefits of 3U ^ealtf). 



manifest in him''; that he might bring good 
out of seeming evil, and make it work together 
for good to him that loveth God. 

As there are blessings in poverty not found 
in wealth, so there are blessings in sickness not 
found in health. "Hindranees are helps/' is a 
law that runs through the kingdom of nature 
and of grace, A great trial will often arouse 
to action those who otherwise would slumber 
in idleness. The grim Carlyle tells us that "he 
who has battled, even if only with poverty and 
hard toil, will be found stronger and more 
expert than he who cowardly stays at home 
from the battle, concealed among the provision 
wagons, or even restfully abiding by the stuif." 
Buike said of himself, ''1 was not rocked, and 
swaddled, and dawdled into a legislator." Old 
age and exile must come before John can have 
transporting visions of Christ. Daniel was left 
twenty years in obscurity, and reduced by fast- 
ing and solitude, before he could sweep with 
the glance of an eagle the farthest horizon of 
time. It was power and prosperity that ruined 
Solomon. It was the pit, and dungeon, and 
slavery, and slander, that placed Joseph upon 
the throne of Egypt. The immortal Dante 
produced his greatest work, the "Divina Com- 



56 Clje CI)orti in tbe ^lesfj. 

edia," in penury and exile. Angelo was perse- 
cuted by men who could neither sympathize with 
him, nor comprehend his genius. Tasso was 
persecuted, and spent seven years in a mad= 
house. It was a prison that gave us Raleigh's 
*' History of the WorkV and Luther's Ger- 
man Bible. It was a jail that we are to thank 
for the inimitable "Pilgrim's Progress." It is 
to trial, opposition, difficulties, and sorrow, that 
we ow^e much of what is great and good in 
ourselves, and much of the great and good that 
we find in the nature of others. 

So, he who has never known bodily sufferings 
has never experienced the fullest sense and pos- 
sibility of his power. As a rule, the man who 
has battled with weakness and disease in early 
life, or perhaps all along the way of life, is 
better able to do and endure in the sphere of 
physical, intellectual, or moral struggle, than a 
man who never had an hour of sickness. 

Much of the most enduring mental work of 
the world has been done by men of impaired 
health and bodily infirmities. Melancthon was 
made the wisest counsellor of the reformer 
Luther by perpetual sickness. The great Euro- 
peaii physiologist and philosopher, Helmholtz, 
dates his start in science from an attack of 



Benefits of 3II £)ealtl?. 57 



typhoid fever while in a hospital. The fever 
proved a fortune. Beethoven, the greatest mu- 
sical genius of the world, was a constant invalid, 
and once said, ^'As autumn leaves fall and 
wither, so are my hopes blighted. Provi- 
dence! vouchsafe to me a day of pure felicity." 
From early age his affliction, which interfered 
with his art, was deafness, which brought him 
to the brink of despair and well-nigh made 
him put an end to his life. Yet such was his 
success that his friends had to turn him round 
at the end of his symphonies that he might see 
the enthusiasm that his music had created, 
Zeno, the founder of the Stoic philosophy, was 
a sickly man. Homer and Milton, the leading 
poets, were not hindered, but helped, by their 
blindness. Pope, and Schiller, and Cowper did 
nearly all their literary work while they were 
invalids. Great geniuses, like Keats, Byron, 
De Quincey, and Sir Walter Scott, gathered all 
the accumulations of antiquarian and historic 
lore which established their fame in hours of 
enfeebled health. Mrs, Browning gained intel- 
lectual power as her bodily strength waned. 
The late Dr, Prime broke down in the ministry 
before he was twenty-eight years old, and, on 
writing to his father that he could "preach no 



58 Cl?e Ct?orn in tt?e ^lesf?. 

longer/' his father replied, '^ God help you, my 
sou: 3^ou are fit for notliing else." God did help 
him iu a way that surprised not only his father, 
but the literary world. Likewise, the late Samuel 
Bowles performed the largest and best part of his 
life work after his health was shattered. The 
lack of physical nerve in these men seems to 
have been the source of their mental supply. 

But great as are the helps which a diseased 
body afitbrds the mind, the blessings which 
come to the spiritual life through sickness are 
by far greater. Afliiction often is " our school- 
master to bring us unto Christ." Says T. L. 
Cuyler: "I honestly believe that many a sick 
bed has delivered the sufferer from a bed in per- 
dition. Pain often drives to prayer." "There 
it is," said a young man as he pointed to a 
diseased limb which was eating away his life, 
^' and a precious limb it has been to me. It 
took me away from a career of folly. It brought 
me to myself, and to this room of trial where 
I have found Christ. I think it has brought 
me a great way on the road to heaven." A 
Christian who had lost his eyesight, after a 
long confinement to a dark room, said, "1 could 
never see Jesus untih I became blind." Jacob. 
as long as he was in vigorous health, was a 



Benefits of 3II i^ealtl?. 59 

treacherous supplanter. It was not until the 
sinews of his thigh shriveled that he became 
Israel — a prince of God. ^' That old patriarch 
never really walked straight until he limped."^ 
Paul had to be buffeted with a thorn in the 
flesh, because he was tempted with a proud and 
ambitious spirit (Phil. 3:4-6); and in order to 
prevent his natural propensity from flaunting 
out into excessive self-esteem, and leading him 
on to self-destruction, the piercing thorn was 
planted in his flesh, by the messenger of Satan. 
Afliiction is often a preventive of some unfore- 
seen evil; and when we sufler, it may be that 
^'the Lord hath a controversy " with us. (Mic. 
6:2.) Not that we have gone astray, but that 
without some discipline we may, and so God 

^A man grew rich and great, but at last suffered the 
world to encroach upon him, until it began to diminish the 
ardor of his piety. The danger of falHng a prey to avarice 
was great, and demanded a great remedy. First of all, the 
wife of his bosom melted from his embrace, but still he 
remained worldly-minded; then a dear son vanished from 
his view, but he was not yet restored; then his crops 
failed, and his cattle died, — still his grasp on the world 
was not unloosed; then God reached hither his hand out 
of heaven and smote him with a lingering sickness. The 
world, however, still occupied too much of his thoughts; 
iinally, his house caught fire, and as he was carried from 
the burning building, he exclaimed, "Blessed be God; I am 
cured at last!" 



60 ^i)Z Ct?orn in ttje ^lest?. 

''hedges up the way with thorns" (Hos. 2:6). 
Ill our Master's school there is a rod of pre- 
vention, as well as a rod of correction; and 
the first is better than the second. Paul did 
more solid work loith this thorn than he could 
have done without it. 

And from Paul's day to the present the same 
law has prevailed among sickly men, who "out 
of weakness were made strong." We think with 
pride of such men as Philip Doddridge, Lyman 
Beecher, John Todd, and Bishop Simpson, who 
in their earlier years in life, struggled with dis- 
ease until they seemed hopelessly blighted by 
physical feebleness; yet they were "in labors 
more abundant," and in goodness of heart more 
fruitful, than their contemporary athletes. John 
Calvin, the great theologian of the Reformation, 
was worn to a thin skeleton by the ravages of 
disease; yet his imperial intellect towered su- 
preme over a crumbling tenement; and the 
sermons he preached, the letters he wrote, and 
the books he published, seemed to inspire him 
with a defiance of the laws of nature that made 
his life almost miraculous. Richard Watson, the 
greatest of Arminian theologians, had a feeble 
body but precocious mind, his pallid counte- 
nance bearing marks of deep thought and severe 



Benefits of 3U f^ealtl), 61 

pain. Richard Baxter, who served a long pas- 
torate at Kidderminster, and wrote more than 
a hundred and fifty treatises, had a lifelong 
struggle with ill health. He was always in 
the hands of the doctors, from first to last no 
fewer than thirty-six having tried their hands 
upon him. Says Ornie, in his biography: ^'He 
was diseased literally from head to foot; his 
stomach flatulent and acidulous; violent rheu- 
matic headaches; prodigious bleeding at the 
nose; his blood so thin and acrid that it oozed 
out from the points of his fingers, and kept 
them often raw and bloody,'' etc.; and then 
adds, " to be more particular would be disa- 
greeable.'' Yet, despite this frightful catalogue 
of diseases, Baxter toiled on until he reached 
the good old age of seventy-six years. Fred- 
erick W. Robertson sufiered and labored all his 
lifetime, bound to the rock like Prometheus, 
with the vulture of disease preying upon his 
lungs and brain. Often he sufiered the agonies 
of Laocoon in the folds of the serpent. Alone 
in his room often he lay on the rug, clenching 
his teeth to prevent the groans which even 
through the sleepless length of the solitary nights 
the ravaging pain could never draw from the 
manliness of his patience and the power of his 



62 Ct?e ^hotn in tl^e ^lesl). 

endurance. Handicapped as he was by disease, 
he was a hero, and wrought so efficiently that 
we shall wait long before we see again in the 
palestra of moral athletce another such a wrestler 
as he was, who like a winged minister of thun- 
der Avent over the churches of England. Like 
Drusus, described by Horace, he could carry on 
war under the Alps. As long as the ocean 
rolls its waves to the coast, and the rivers pour 
their tributaries to the gulf, men will read his 
sermons, and unborn generations will yet rise 
to honor the memory and bless the name of 
Frederick W. Robertson. Samuel Davies, whose 
stirring sermons fill many volumes, was pining 
away under consumption — '"^preached in the day, 
and had hectic fever by night," says his biogra- 
pher. Robert Hall had no superior in the pulpit 
in his day; yet he hardly knew what it was to 
be free from bodily sufiering and illness in all 
the years of his ministry. Once he was found 
lying upon the floor, racked with pain, learning 
Italian in his old age to enable him to judge 
of the parallel drawn by Macaulay between 
Milton and Dante. He composed his greatest 
sermon while lying on his back. Dr. Ignatius 
A. Few labored amidst torturing pains. Spur- 
geon, the greatest and most powerful preacher 



Benefits of jU £}calti}. 63 

of to-day, is almost a constant suflerer. We 
have no reason for saying that these men, who 
accomplished great moral results under the im- 
pediment of sickness, might have accomplished 
much more without such incumbrance. Reli- 
gion, philosophy, and fact teach us that to the 
true man seeming ills are blessings in disguise, 
and become the source of strength; so that an 
afflicted man, as Bushnell says, ''comes out of 
the fire and is tempered to the sway of many 
things he cannot resist. Thus it is that a great 
many of the best and holiest examples of piety 
are such as have been refined and finished in the 
crucible of sufi'ering. Sympathy and all the vir- 
tues, fitly called graces, begin at the point of pain." 

Yes, ''hindrances are helps." So testify the 
early Christians: "We are troubled on every 
side, yet not distressed; w^e are perplexed, but 
not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; 
cast down, but not destroyed" (II. Cor. 4:8, 9). 
They were paradoxical people. To them pain 
was pleasure, loss was gain, poverty was wealth, 
reproach was honor, down was up, and death 
was life. (II. Cor. 6:9, 10.) 

What saith the Seripture? 

"O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and 
not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones 



64: tEf?e Ct?orn in tt?e ^lesfj. 

with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with 
sapphires. And I will make thy windows of 
agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all 
thy borders of pleasant stones'^ (Isa. 54:11, 12). 
"It is better to go to the house of mourning, 
than to go to the house of feasting, . . . Sorrow 
is better than laughter: for by the sadness of 
the countenance the heart is made better'^ (Ecc, 
7:2, 8). "The Lord will maintain the cause of 
the afflicted'^ (Psalm 140:12). "The Lord will 
strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: 
thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness" 
(Psalm 41:3). "Many are the afflictions of 
the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out 
of them air' (Psalm 34:19). "I have chosen 
thee in the furnace of affliction '^ (Isa. 48:10). 
"Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now 
have I kept thy word" (Psalm 119:67). "As 
many as I love, I rebuke and chasten (Rev. 
3:19). "Take, my brethren, the prophets, who 
have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an 
example of suffering affliction, and of patience. 
Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye 
have heard of the patience of Job, and have 
seen the end of the Lord" (James 5:10, 11). 
"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; be- 
cause the Lord hath anointed me to preach 



Benefits of 3U fiealttj, 65 

good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to 
bind up the brokenhearted, ... to comfort all 
that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn 
in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, 
the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of 
praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they 
might be called trees of righteousness, the 
planting of the Lord, that he might be glori- 
fied" (Isa. 61:1-3), ^^For I reckon that the 
sufierings of this present time are not worthy 
to be compared with the glory which shall be 
revealed in us" (Rom. 8:18). 

These reflections carry a halo of bliss into 
the very shadow of the sick chamber. Every 
Christian, as well as Luther, may call afiiiction 
one of his best schoolmasters, and cry out: "O 
healthful sickness! comfortable sorrow! O 
gainful losses! enriching poverty! blessed 
day that ever I was afflicted!" 

A minister was recovering from a dangerous 
illness, when one of his friends addressed him 
thus: "Sir, though God seems to be bringing 
you up from the gates of death, yet it will be 
a long time before you will sufficiently retrieve 
your strength and regain enough vigor of mind 
to preach as usual." The good man answered, 
"You are mistaken, my friend; for this six 



66 Cbe CI?orn in tbe ^iest). 

weeks' illness has taught me more divinity 
than all my past studies, and all my ten years' 
ministry put together." A course in the school 
of affliction introduces us into the higher soci- 
ety of .the spirits. Dr. Pay son used to say that 
God puts us on our backs in order that we 
may look upward. In that look is our help. 

Was Jesus ever sick? JS'o one can be per-, 
fectly human, and experience all that is essential 
to mortal life, without suflering bodily affliction. 
Christ's impeccability does not imply exemption 
from physical sufiering, for his human nature 
was created, not transmitted, and, therefore, 
could suffer all the effects of sin (sickness being 
one of the inherited results of sin) without par- 
ticipating in the cause of sin. Sinlessness and 
sicklessness are not always the same in the 
realm of mortal habitation. Isaiah speaks of 
Jesus as ''stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted"; 
as himself taking our infirmities, and "bearing 
our sicknesses" — Revised Version, ''diseases" 
(Matt. 8:17). He was a "man of pains, and 
familiar with sickness" (Isa. 53:3 — Cheyne's 
translation). The "Captain of our salvation" 
was made "perfect through suffering"; was 
tempted in ''all points'' like unto us. How 
could he have been moved with compassion to 



Benefits of 3II ^eallb. 67 



heal all manner of diseases, sympathize with 
them, and therefore ''succor" them that are 
sick, if he had never been sick himself; if lie 
had missed this one "point," namely, sickness, 
in the "all points" of human experience? 

Now, to sutler with him is to be glorified 
with him. Fellowship in suffering creates unity 
of spirit. Grief knits two hearts together in 
closer bonds than any other thing can; and 
common suffering is a much stronger link of 
friendship than common joy. Here is the secret 
of the intermingling of the human and the 
divine nature, as developed by Dr. Trumbull in 
his ''Blood Covenant," wherein he says: "Blood- 
giving was life-giving. Life-giving was love- 
showing. Love-showing was heart-yearning after 
union in love, and in life, and in blood, and in 
very being." In 'this faith the sufferer sings: 

**Take, dearest Lord, this crushed and bleeding heart, 
And lay it in thine hand, thy pierced hand. 
That thine atoning blood may mix with mine. 
Till- 1 and my Beloved are all one." 

There is honey in the German's sweet "Song 
of Solace": 

**Thou sweet hand of God that so woundest my heart. 
Thou makest me smile, while thou makest me smart; 
It seems as if God were at ball play, and I — 
The harder he strikes me, the higher I fly." 



68 tEt?e CI?orn in the ^Usij. 

Suffering develops the heart-j^ower. We never 
knov^ what we are capable of till the trial comes; 
but when it comes, it calls into exercise powers 
that otherwise would have remained dormant. 
^' God/' says Spurgeon, ''gets his best soldiers 
out of the highlands of affliction.'' 

The heart must first be broken and crushed 
before it can be strengthened. A great musi- 
cian once said of a singer who had good ability, 
which was not being used: ''She sings well, but 
she wants something, and in that something, 
everything. If I were single, I would court 
her, I would marry her, I would maltreat her, 
I would break her heart, and in six months she 
w^ould be the greatest singer in Europe." Truly, 
the heart never can a transport know, that never 
feels a pain. Some flowers, before shedding 
their fragrance, require to be pressed. 

**The good are better made by ill, 
As roses crushed are sweeter still." 

Some birds are said to sing their sweetest notes 
when the thorn pierces their bosom. So it is 
the pressure of sorrow that crushes out of our 
hearts the best wine — the best music that is in 
the soul. Milton never sang more sweetly than 
he did after he was smitten with blindness. It 



Benefits of 3U i^ealtt?. 69 

was not until David was hunted like a partridge, 
that he became the sweet singer of Israel. The 
hurricane that killed Job's children, prepared 
the man of Uz to write the magnificent poem 
that has astonished the world. Men are cradled 
into poetry and song by the ills and frets of 
life, and the suflering fire. "They learn in suf- 
fering what they teach in song.'' Dr. Young 
received his preparation for writing his sublime 
''Night Thoughts" by the things he sufiered, 
and this is his experience: 

"Amid my blessings infinite, 
Stands this tlie foremost: 
That my heart has bled,^^ 

The bird that sings the sweetest sings in the 
night. 

On the Rhine in Germany is a dingy castle 
with two towers rising up above the rest of the 
building. The old baron who inhabits and owns 
the fortress as his home stretched several wires 
from one tower to the other, constructing what 
might be called an ^olian harp. In pleasant 
summer weather, the ordinary breezes produce 
no efiect upon this instrument, and it is per- 
fectly silent. But in the winter season, when 
the fierce tornado comes rushing down the hills, 
breaking the trees and shakins: the mountains 



70 CI?e Cborn in ttje ^lesl?. 

with its trampling thunder, and with the fingers 
of its fury smites those strings, then they send 
forth the grandest strains of music that the ear 
ever heard. God sometimes, out of our heart- 
strings, constructs -^olian harps. But when 
does he get the best music out of us? Not 
when everything goes well, but when every- 
thing goes ill. The soft and spicy breezes that 
cheer the homes of health and wealth, and the 
gentle zephyrs that gladden the hours of peace 
and prosperity, make no music within us, and 
we are dumb. But when adversity comes at 
the command of God, when disappointments, 
and bereavements, and losses come together 
like a rushing w^ind, and all our hopes are 
blasted, it is then we hang our harps upon the 
willows, weeping; it is then that there goes 
sweeping through the soul such music as makes 
glad the city of our God; and like the unlucky 
prophet, we sing: "Although the fig tree shall 
not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; 
the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields 
shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut oft* 
from the fold, and there shall be no herd in 
the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will 
joy in the God of my salvation." As all the 
rivers run into the sea, so all our sorrows run 



Benefits of 3U i^eaItI^ 71 

into joy, when we listen to the w^ords of Jesus: 
*' Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be 
comforted." 

Thank God for the helpful ministry of sickness. 
Dr. George Matherson, one of the most learned 
and gifted men in all Britain, is blind. Although 
he lives, and must always live, in total darkness, 
yet he is a cheerful and happy-hearted Chris- 
tian. The following touching words from his 
pen ought to strengthen the Christian patience 
of God's afflicted children: 

"My God, I have never thanked thee for my 
thorn, I have thanked thee a thousand times for 
my roses, but not once for my thorn. I have 
been looking forward to a world where I shall 
get compensation for my cross, but I have never 
thought of my cross as itself a present glory. 
Thou divine love, whose human path has been 
perfected through sufferings, teach me the glory 
of my cross; teach me the value of my thorn/' 
It takes night to bring out stars. It takes clouds 
and showers to bring out the beautiful colors of 
the rainbow. So all the rarest hues of life take 
radiance and are rainbowed out in tears. 

God makes nature beautiful by breaking it 
into pieces. The clear stream, that flows along 
smoothly and placidly, is^ beaufifnl, but never so 



72 Clje Ct)orn in tt?e ^lesl?. 

beautiful as when broken into rapids by the falls, 
as it goes dashing down the deep gorge, revealing 
crystals of exquisite beauty, like glittering dia- 
monds in the rainbow of the spray. When the 
United States fleet stood off the coast of North 
Carolina, the water was troubled and fiercely 
tossed by reason of a great wind that blew, and 
it was night; but as the waves rose in their 
rage, they became phosphorescent, and changed 
the stormy sea into a sea of glory; so your 
brightest joys leap out of the very troubled 
sorrows of your souls. Lovelier, indeed, to the 
eye is the azure blue, the fleecy summer vapor, 
or the gold and vermilion of western sunsets; 
but what would become of the earth, if no dark 
clouds, from time to time, hung over it, distill- 
ing their treasures, reviving and refreshing its 
drooping vegetable tribes? 

Many of the ivorld's best things have been 
born of afiliction. The sw^eetest songs ever sung 
on earth have been called out by suffering; the 
purest blessings that we enjoy have come to us 
out of the fire; the richest things we inherit 
from the past are the purchase of suffering and 
sacrifice. Our redemption comes from Gethsem- 
ane and Calvary. We gain heaven through 
Christ's tears and blood. Whatever is richest 



Benefits of 3U ^ealtf}. 73 

and most valuable in life, everywhere, has been 
in the fire. Those who have reached the high- 
est ranks in holiness and influence have battled 
with hardships. Without the encountering of 
difficulties, life might be easier, but it would be 
worthless. The school of difficulty is the best 
school of moral discipline. Indeed, the history 
of difficulty would be but a history of all the 
great and good things that have yet been accom- 
plished. 

Then there is dignity in patient suffering. 
To develop our fortitude and courage, God 
finds motives enough to justify much terrible 
severity of schooling. Perhaps some things 
may be waiting for us in the years to come, 
for which we are having a long education; 
perhaps to sufier is nothing else than to 
live more deeply. ''Love and sorrow are the 
two conditions of a profound life," said Yinet. 
Sadness is the lot of deep souls and strong intel- 
lects. To sufier most is the privilege of him 
who feels most, and the furrows traced by 
powerful thoughts deepen into abysses beneath 
its pressure. Job, the hero of affliction, lived 
somewhere "in the secret place of the Most 
High" when he exclaimed, ''Though he slay 
me, yet will I trust him." 



74 3:i?e Ct?orn in tl?e ^lesl}. 



There is a cimrming picture in the gallery 
of the Louvre bearing the title, '' Portrait of a 
Man.'- I do not know whether it is to represent 
Job or some other champion sufferer, but it 
evidently has a history behind it. Its face is 
full of meaning. There are in it unmistakable 
signs of awful trouble. The man looks away, 
he seems to have no consciousness of himself or 
the men and women who are trying to catch 
his eye. There he sits, year in and year out, 
seeing something, but saying nothing. The 
observer is moved by the strong, sad visage of 
a brother made kingly by pain and crowned 
by strength. Yes, in spite of her black visage 
and dark mantle. Sorrow is a beautiful prin- 
cess, and walks abroad as the queen of noble 
hearts — I had almost said the queen of heaven, 
because she comes from heaven to make us 
meet for heaven. Thanks be to God for the 
stamp of every grief in which the men of grace 
have found glory begun below. 

Paul's universal law of providence, that "all 
things work together for good to them that 
love God," is a solution of the problem of evil 
in a good man's experience. Paul's "afflic- 
tions," "distresses," "imprisonments," "tumults," 
"labors," "watchings," "fastings," " dishonor," 



Benefits of 3II ^ealtl). 75 



^' evil reports," "stripes above measure/' "thrice 
beaten with rods," "once stoned," thrice suf- 
fered shipwreck," "perils of waters, of robbers, 
of the heathen, and among false brethren," — 
all these were the ingredients in the cup of 
his life that worked together for his good. 
Paul's experience may be unique — an isolated 
case, but his law is universal, and applies to all 
cases. Righteous Abel falls under the blow of his 
wicked brother. Job, a "perfect and upright" 
man, is stripped of his property, family, and 
health. Jacob sums up the history of his life 
with, "Few and sorrowful have been the days 
of my pilgrimage," John the Baptist got for 
his fidelity a dungeon and the block. Stephen 
was stoned. Peter was crucified with his head 
downward. John was banished to rocky Pat- 
mos. The Sinless One perished on the cross, 
amid the jeers of unholy persecutors. Polycarp 
was buried alive. St. Sebastian was pierced 
with arrows. St. Catharine was torn on the 
wheel. St. Lawrence was roasted over a slow 
fire. And thus we might go on and review 
the lives of those who "had trial of cruel 
mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of 
bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, 
they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were 



76 CI?e CI?orn in tlje ^Usl}, 

slain with the sword; they wandered about 
in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, 
aflaiicted, tormented; (of whom the world was 
not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in 
mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth." 
How does all this work out good for the lover 
of God? This problem is wisely held over for 
some future revelation. Some day God will 
unravel the tangled skein of providence and 
show us his beautiful designs, by which, unseen 
by the weavers below, the apparently random 
shuttles of life are weaving all the threads into 
a robe of righteousness for "them that love 
God." Above the clatter of the looms and the 
flying of the spindles, he is guiding and con- 
trolling all by a plan of infinite wisdom and 
goodness. 

But to see the proof of this divine philoso- 
phy of sufl:ering, sometimes requires long and 
patient waiting. "Waiting on the Lord" is a 
harder service than working for him. To one 
God says, "Go, work in my vineyard," and to 
the strong and fleet this is a luxury; to another 
he says, "Go, sit down there and wait until 
I bring thee word," and this is a dish of 
bitter herbs. It means suffering, bearing, en- 
during. In its effects, it is wearing, weakening. 



Benefits of 3U i^ealtf?, 77 

exhausting. I would rather be Elijah on Mt. 
Carmel, working and praying to convert the 
worshipers of Baal, than Elijah waiting at the 
brook of Cherith; rather Luther, wearing out 
my life in the Reformation, than Job sitting 
in the dust to pay to God the homage of quiet 
waiting and patient sulfering; rather fight all 
day in the thickest of the battle than be the 
boy on London bridge, or Casablanca waiting 
for his father on the burning deck. These are 
times of ''waiting" that try men's souls. 

Men utter thoughtless criticisms on Taylor's 
hymn. Let the strong and healthful shun the 
words, "Oh, to be nothing!" and change them 
to, ''Oh, to be something!" but at the same 
time let them not forget that there are others 
in humbler walks of life who know what it is 
to be " nothivg, only to lie at his feet." Let 
them remember that there are beautiful, though 
uneventful, lives — sweet names, unknown to 
fortune or to fame, that are mere blanks in 
the line of historic achievements, because their 
mission was not to toil, but to suffer; their lot 
was not to shine like a star in public and oflScial 
splendor, but to endure in silent and sweet 
obscurity. But in the great pay-day of the 
world^s final settlement, God will reward faith 



78 Ct?e ^i}oxn in tbe ^lesl?. 

as well as toorks, and show what Milton said, 
'' They also serve who only stand and wait." 

That divinely-appointed '^ waiting" is not 
idleness, is clearly taught in the parable of the 
laborers in the vineyard. (Matt. 20:1-16.) The 
men hired at the eleventh hour were waiting 
because ''no man hath hired" them — not wait- 
ing through willful . idleness, but through ad- 
verse circumstances. They, in common with the 
rest, all received a penny a day. Not only the 
''successful," but also the "faithful," will be 
rewarded. 

No doubt, there are degrees of bliss in heaven. 
Some will be accounted worthy of double honor. 
But who shall wear the crowns with more jewels, 
and sit down on those thrones of higher dignity? 
Who shall be the greatest in the kingdom of 
heaven? Shall they be those who were greatest 
in the church below? The pillars and pinnacles 
in the temple here may be nothing more than 
the doorposts and lintels in the house of the 
Lord on high, while those who are "less than the 
least of all saints" now, may be the greatest 
in the kingdom of heaven. It is said that a 
pearl is the result of a wound hiflicted on the 
oyster. It may turn out after all, that the 
brightest jewels in heaven come from the poor, 



Benefits of jU t)ealtl7. 79 

suffering wounds of earth, kindled into the jew- 
eled brightness of eternal day. 

The eternal allotments of rewards will not be 
made so much for what we have accomplished, 
as for what w^e have suffered. It is generally 
supposed that the martyrs will wear the bright- 
est crowns, because they endured unspeak- 
able torments for the sake of Christ. "But 
there* are martyrs still, not of the rack, nor of 
the stake, nor of the scaffold, but martyrs of 
poverty and sickness, adorning the doctrine 
of God in the unpoetic, common duties of 
domestic life, carrying burdens and crosses over 
hills of difficulty, and climbing mountains of 
sacrifice in shops, and schools, and kitchens, and 
among the habitations of cruelty; unseen by all 
the w^orld, yet all the while distilling the oil of 
joy from mournings wearing the garment of 
praise out of the spirit of heaviness, and trans- 
forming the black ashes of their sorrow into 
bridal diadems of beauty.^^ 

Finally, it is a consolation to know that we 
are not the only ones who get to heaven 
through suffering. It is the way in which our 
Savior went. In some trackless lands, when 
one passes through a pathless forest, he breaks 
a twig ever and anon as he goes, that those 



80 CI?e ^ijoxn in tije ^lestj, 

who come after may see the traces of his having 
been there, and that they are not oat of the 
way. Oh, when we are journeying through the 
murky night and the dark woods of affliction and 
sorrow, it is something to find here and there a 
spray broken^ or a leafy stem bent down with 
the tread of His foot and the brush of His 
hand, and to remember that the path He trod 
has been hallowed and sanctified by Him, bear- 
ing grief for us, bearing grief with us, bearing 
grief like us! 

Our griefs may be lasting, but not everlasting. 
Pilgrim cf grief, your tears will soon be wiped 
away A few more aching sighs, a few more 
dark clouds, and the eternal sun shall burst on 
you. Life may be one long *' valley of Baca'^ 
— a protracted scene of '' weeping"; but soon 
shall you hear the sweet chimes wafted from 
the towers of heaven: ''It is enough, afflicted 
child, come home." Mourning days to the 
believer are preludes and precursors of eternal 
glory. Do you belong to the family of sorrow? 
Be of good cheer. Soon the "bruised reed" 
will be repaired and tuned to join the concert 
of angels on high, sweeter than the JEolian 
harp on the singing Rhine; soon the long night 
watch will be over, and the dews of the night 



Benefits of 3a Jjeaitt?. 81 

of weeping, nature's teardrops, will come to 
sparkle, like beautiful gems, in the morning of 
immortality. Then shall you take off your 
sackcloth and be girded with gladness, as from 
the foaming billows of life's turbulent sea, you 
shall rise fair as an Aphrodite emerging from 
the waves, when all the surges of sorrow shall 
be changed into a sea of glory. 



CHAPTER V. 

IDxvinc Ibealin^^ 

Sickness per se is an evil. To the devout 
Christian this evil may be the occasion of two 
benefits: God may overrule the evil for good, 
as we have already elucidated, or he may en- 
tirely remove the evil, and so make the remedy 
exceed the ruins. This lesson we learn from 
various developments of the great scheme of 
salvation, in which men gain, through Christ, 
more than they lost through Adam. In other 
words, it was well that man fell; for his recovery 
through redemption places him on a plane higher 
than otherwise he could have reached in his 
unfallen state without the benefits of an atone- 
ment. The sick, then, may be twice blessed — 
blessed in the enduring, and blessed in the 
curing. 

There exist to-day a multitude of opinions as 
to the help we may expect from the Lord in 
the work of healing. Our study of this subject 
has led us to believe that the Bible warrants 
us in asking for divine help in healing bodily 



Dtptne pealing* 83 



diseases, whenever they become incurable by the 
aid of human or natural agencies; and that, in 
such cases, we have a right to expect miraculous 
interposition, within the limits of God's most 
holy and beneficent will. 

The philosophy of our faith finds its roots 
in the plan of vicarious suflering. The eradi- 
cating of physical pain and sickness, according 
to the teachings of both the Old and New Tes- 
taments, is included in the benefits of Christ's 
atonement. Disease is one of the efiects of the 
fall of man — the result of sin. Hence, sin and 
sickness are closely related. The one is the 
oftspring of the other; and is it not reasonable 
to suppose that the removal of the cause would 
also be the removal of the effect? That is, 
destroy sin and you thereby destroy sickness; 
destroy the root and germ and you shall no 
more pluck the bitter fruit from this pernicious 
tree of evil. 

The Bible seems to sanction the theory that 
the healing of disease should accompany, or 
may occur with, the forgiveness of sin, in such 
passages as, "For whether is easier, to say, 
Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and 
walk?" (Matt. 9:5); "And he sent them to 
preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the 



84 S:i?e Cl?orn in tl?e ^lest?. 

sick" (Luke 9:1); ''The prayer of faith shall 
save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him 
up; and if he have committed sins, they shall 
be forgiven him" (James 5:15); "Who forgiv- 
eth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy 
diseases" (Psalm 103:3); ''Heal me, O Lord, 
and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be 
saved" (Jer. 17:14); "And the inhabitant shall 
not say, I am sick: the people that dwell 
therein shall be forgiven their iniquity" (Isa, 
33:24); "Behold, I wish above all things that 
thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as 
thy soul prospereth" (III. John 1:2). In all 
these texts, sin and sickness seem to be associ- 
ated as cause and effect, as antecedent and 
consequent; at least, it is asserted that the 
removal of both may take place simultaneouslyo 
Associated in their origin and existence, why 
should they not be associated in the method 
of their extermination and in the means of our 
deliverance from them? 

But we are not left to speculate upon a 
few isolated passages. Deliverance from disease 
was evidently one of the conditional blessings 
of God's everlasting covenant with Israel. If 
these stipulated blessings were not always real- 
ized, it was not because they were not promised. 



DtPtne pealing* 85 



but because they forfeited them through diso- 
bedience and unfaithfuhiess. That Israel had 
a law of exemption from sickness, is plainly 
expressed in Exodus 15:25, 26: "There he 
made for them a statute and an ordinance^ and 
there he proved them, and said. If thou wilt 
diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy 
God, and wilt do that which is right in his 
sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, 
and keep all his statutes, I will put none of 
these diseases upon thee, which I have brought 
upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that 
healeth thee." This covenant was renewed just 
before the death of Moses (Deut. 7:15), and 
Verified afterwards in the healing of Hezekiah 
(IL Kings 20) and Naaman (11. Kings 5), and 
reiterated in Messianic prophecy, one peculiar 
feature of which was that ''health and cure" 
should proceed from the ''Righteous Branch" 
(Jer, 23 and 33); and all this found its fulfill- 
ment in Christ, who "healed all manner of 
sickness, and all manner of disease among the 
people." The bodily benefits of the Messiah's 
work among men were spoken of by Isaiah: 
"Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, 
and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. 
Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and 



86 CI?e CI?orn in tt?e ^leslj. 

the tongue of the dumb slug" (Isa. 35:5, 6), 
Christ appealed to the fuliillment of this saying 
in order to satisfy the doubts of John the 
Baptist: "Now when John had lieard in the 
prison the w^orks of Christ, he sent two of his 
disciples, and said unto him, Art thou he that 
should come, or do we look for another? Jesus 
answered and said unto them, Go and shew 
John again those things which ye do hear and 
see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame 
walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf 
hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor 
have the gospel preached to them" (Matt, 
11:2-5). See also Matt 8:16, 17, for a similar 
confirmation. Christ, then, was a sickness-bearer 
as well as a sin-bearer. If it is stated that ''he 
bare our sins," it is also stated that ''he bare 
our sickness" (Matt. 8:17)^ and hence there 
is some scriptural ground for Dr. Gordon's 
belief that "the yoke of his cross by which 
he took hold of our iniquities took hold also 
of our diseases," and for Mr. Marsh's statement, 
founded on biblical data, that "if Christ taught 

^Dr. Pope, Vol. II., p. 153, in commenting on this pas- 
sage, says: 'This passage has no other design than to 
include our physical distress in the benefit of the great 
vicarious intervention." 



Dtptne pealing. 87 



that he made atonement for the sins of man- 
kind, he also tauglit that he atoned for their 
diseases. For he healed disease on precisely 
the same terms on which he forgave sin/' 
namely, ''Thy faith hath saved thee'' 

In reviewing^ then, the covenant with Israel 
C^For I am the Lord that healeth thee"), and 
the predictions of healing in the Messianic 
prophecy of the Old Testament, we are led to 
believe that Christ brought deliverance, not 
only from sin, but also from sickness; that the 
atonement, in its broadest and fullest extent^ was 
for the redemption and salvation of the lohole 
man, the material as well as the spiritual — uni- 
versal not only in its adaptation to all persons, 
but to the complement of each person; and that 
its complete efficacy and ultimate purpose is the 
extermination, of all evil in the believer, the 
purification and glorification of soul, and body^ 
and spirit. Has redemption nothing to do with 
our bodies? The gospel, in its ultimatum, is 
designed to be a panacea for all the ills of life, 
and the church the world's sanitarium for a 
sin-bitten and disease-smitten humanity. There 
is a ''balm in Gilead, there is a physician there," 
has both a literal and a spiritual significance. 

Nor did the power to heal cease with Christ's 



88 Ci?e Ct)orn in tl?e ^leslj. 

earthly life; for the original commission to the 
twelve and the seventy (Luke 9:1, 2) included 
the power to heal the sick. Not only did they 
exercise the charismata in the church of the first 
century (Luke 9:6; I Cor. 12:9), but Jesus 
definitely bequeathed the same supernatural gift 
to the church of the future. (Mark 16:17, 18.) 
We need not wonder, then, that Professor Christ- 
lieb and Dr. Bushnell both so zealously main- 
tained that the promise of the supernatural 
healing is for all time, and that the only reason 
why apostolic miracles are wanting in any age 
is because apostolic faith is wanting. "He that 
believeth on me, the works that I do shall he 
do also." The conclusion, then, is, that while 
God has not promised to heal every aflliction, 
he has made provision in his atonement for 
supernatural healing. 

Argument from Reason and History. — We 
have given the scriptural argument in favor 
of divine healing, as fundamental to the discus- 
sion. We believe, however, that the reason- 
ableness of this whole interesting subject may 
be further determined by a truthful answer to 
three test questions. 

I. Can God heal diseases? 

This is equivalent to the question, ''Is God 



Dtptne pealing. 89 



almighty?^' 2^0 one who believes in the exist- 
ence of a Supreme Being will answer either 
of these questions in the negative; for what 
Christian would for a moment question the 
ability and omnipotence of God to perform any 
conceivable act? In reference to the healing 
art, we answer: 

1. God can do, at least, what natural agencies 
can do. There is a system of healing. Men 
can heal. Why not God? Medicine, hygiene, 
a cheerful spirit, and a resolute will are natural 
cures working through natural laws. Physi- 
cians can direct and apply these remedies and 
laws to our recovery. Cannot God do what 
his creatures do, — w^hat physicians, and quinine, 
and law, and w^ill power can do? The author 
or originator of a system ought to be able to 
do as much as his representative agents, and 
to give the best counsel for its successful admin- 
istration. 

Many have great faith in medicine; but we 
scarcely reflect how little foundation w^e have 
for such a faith. Medicine, in most cases, can 
do very little. Butler, in his immortal '^ Anal- 
ogy," thinks that there may be remedies in 
the earth for every disease. If so/ and these 
at any future age could all be discovered and 



90 tn?e Cf)orn in tt?e ^Usij. 

utilized, the time might come when divine help 
would not be needed; but it is an admitted fact 
that in our day therapeutics is a very imperfect 
science — yea, a much abused science. Many sick 
persons, no doubt, would often get well were 
it not for drugs and doctors. To support this 
statement might be cited many eminent author- 
ities. A few will suffice. Dr. James Johnson, 
a popular surgeon, says: "I declare my consci- 
entious opinion, founded on long observation 
and reflection, that if there were not a single 
physician, surgeon, apothecary, man midwife, 
chemist, druggist, or drug on the face of the 
earth, there would be less sickness and less 
mortality." Mr. Mason Good, a very success- 
ful practitioner in London, author of several 
works, such as "The Study of Medicine," "Dis- 
eases of Prisons," and " System of Nosology," 
says, "The effects of medicine in the human 
system are in the highest degree uncertain, 
except, indeed, that they have already destroyed 
more lives than war, pestilence, and famine com- 
bined." These startling testimonies, of course, 
tacitly concede that there is some good in our 
present system of medicine, but assert that the 
evil preponderates, and it therefore, on the whole, 
is a failure. The utterances are not to be directed 



Dtptne £jealtng. 91 

against an intelligent or skillful use of the heal- 
ing art, but an ignorant malpractice. Often 
patients are like the woman in the Gospel, who 
"had sujSFered many things of many physicians, 
and had spent all that she had, and was nothing 
bettered, but rather grew worse '^ (Mark 5:26). 
Besides, the world is full of quacks and 
quackery. Thousands of nostrums and patent 
medicines flood the market with flaming testi- 
monials, claiming to cure all ailments incident 
to humanity. They are pufted into public 
notoriety to hoodwink and blindfold the credu- 
lous. And this charlatanism sometimes seems 
to be successful. Why? Because it is esti- 
mated by medical authority that nineteen out 
of every twenty people sufiering from the ordi- 
nary acute diseases, if left to nature, get well. 
Hence quackery has nine chances out of ten 
to be successful. But the secret of the delusion 
consists in the fact, first, that nature cures and 
quackery gets the credit; and, second, that out 
of one thousarud cases actually tested by the 
"patents," you hear of one so-called successful 
case, boastfully advertised broadcast over the 
land, but you never hear of the nine hundred 
and ninety-nine flat failures, which are not pub- 
lished, but forever suppressed from all publicity. 



92 CI?e Ct?orn in tlje ^lesl?. 

The wearing of an African gregree to keep off 
the Devil, or the carrying of a potato in the 
pocket for rheumatism, could claim as much 
in curing diseases as these medical nuisances 
profess to accomplish. The so-called " Christian 
Science" is a misnomer, for it is neither "Chris- 
tian" nor scientific, but a superstitious impo- 
sition that is deluding many of the innocent 
and unwary. As a system of healing, it is one 
of the most transparent and stupendous frauds 
which has ever been practiced on the suffering 
and credulous. 

Mountebanks, counterfeits, and frauds abound 
in the realm of medical science; but such jug- 
gleries, defalcations, and spurious imitations prove 
that there is a true and a false in the materia 
medica, and that human skill is often unable 
to distinguish between the two, or tell precisely 
where the one ends and the other begins. 
Hence, both the physician and the patient, while 
depending on natural remedies, should unite in 
praying for divine direction in diagnosing the 
case and in prescribing the remedy, and in 
saving them from a perversion of true science. 
The conclusion is, that if men can do something 
for sickness by means of an imperfectly under- 
stood system of natural healing agencies, cannot 



Dtptne ^ealtng^ 93 



God, the creator and manager of nature, do 
mucli more through a perfect knowledge of 
these same agencies? 

2. But God can do more than man; that is, 
he can heal miraculously. 

Sometimes the best medical skill and the 
most approved natural remedies cannot arrest 
the ravages of a disease. What now? Has the 
inevitable come? Can nothing more be done? 
Human skill has exhausted itself^ has reached 
its extremity. Has divine skill also exhausted 
itself, or reached its extremity? At the bedside 
of a sick friend stands the family physician. 
God, the Great Physician, also stands there. 
The physician says, "I can do no more." 
Does God also say the same? Imagine him 
saying, '' When you have used the most efficient 
drugs and employed the most skillful prac- 
titioner, it is useless to look to me. I am sorry, 
but I am helpless. The sick man must die in 
spite of anything and everything, natural or 
supernatural, I can do." If such a confession 
were made by the Lord, we would lose all 
faith in his divinity; we would have to con- 
clude that he is only human, not omnipotent. 

The question now is, , not whether he does 
work miracles of healing, but whether he can 



94 Cf?e Cborn in tl?e ^lest?. 

work such miracles. The skeptic may say that 
God cannot consistently break his own laws, and 
may ask in derision, "- Can God make water run 
up hill in answer to prayer?" We answer most 
emphatically that he com. Even men can do 
that, and are doing it with every stroke of a 
pump-handle. Goethe, in arguing against the 
possibility of miracles, exclaims, "An audible 
voice from heaven could not convince me that 
water burns," and yet this confident boaster 
forgot that a skillful chemist in his laboratory 
in our day, could burn to a crisp with only 
one draught of water. The truth of the matter 
is, that when God performs a miracle, he no 
more breaks a law than when men pump water 
or ignite it. He only uses higher laws, unknown 
to man, which are above nature, but not contrary 
to nature. It is not only possible, but reason- 
able to suppose, that God should call into service 
the higher laws of a heavenly cosmos to correct 
or reform the lower order of a depraved moral 
and physical chaos. Sickness is an abnormal 
course of nature. It is unnatural that there 
should be sickness in the world, but not unnat- 
ural that Christ should call into activity the 
higher laws of heaven to counteract the lower 
laws of a fallen world; for genuine miracles as 



DtPtne pealing* 95 



distinguished from apocryphal ones, have in 
view a benevolent and redeeming purpose. 

At least so much is evident, that He who 
made a perfect body for man can also restore 
the lapsed or imperfect ones, either naturally or 
supernaturally. To the question, '' Can God heal 
disease?^' only one rational answer can be given. 

But to prove that God can do a thing is no 
evidence whatever that he will do it. He could 
annihilate the earth in a moment of time. He 
has the power and ability both naturally and 
supernaturally, but all this is no evidence that 
he does, or ever will do it. 

Hence, we advance from philosophy to his- 
tory, from theory to fact, and put the second 
test question. 

n. Has God healed^ and is he healing diseases 
to-day .^ 

That Christ wrought miracles upon the sick 
folks of Palestine, needs no confirmation. In- 
deed, most of his miracles were healings. There 
were no hard and hopeless cases that were too 
much for the skill of Christ.^ Scripture abounds 

^01 the thirty recorded miracles of Christ, twenty-one 
were miracles of healing. 

1. The healing of the nobleman's son in Capernaum. 
(John 4:46-54.) 2. The healing of a demoniac in the syn- 



96 Ct?e Ctjorn irt ttje ^Ust). 

with indisputable instances of supernatural cures 
performed by Christ, and his disciples by proxy. 
(Acts 3; 5:15, 16; 28:8; 19:12.) This is au- 
thentic history. Query: If Christ ever healed, 
why should he not do so to-day? How easy 
to answer this question by saying that "the 
age of miracles is past." But this is as untrue 
a statement as it would be to assert that " the 
age of salvation is past." The whole work of 
redemption, from beginning to end, is a miracu- 
lous activity. Every " new birth " is a miracle. 
You cannot separate the miraculous from any 
act of regeneration. To save a soul is greater 
than to heal a body; it is the greatest of all 

agogue at Capernaum. (Mark 1:21-28: Luke 4:31-37.) 3. 
The healing of Peter's wife's mother at Capernaum. ( Matt. 
8 . 14-17 ; Mark 1 : 29-34 ; Luke 4 : 38-41.) 4. The healing of 
a leper in Galilee. (Matt. 8:2-4; Mark 1:40-45; Luke 
5:12-16.) 5. The healing of a paralytic in Capernaum. 
( Matt. 9:2-8; Mark 2 : 1-12 ; Luke 5 : 17-26.) 6. The healing 
of the infirm man at the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem. 
(John 5:1-47.) 7 The healing of a withered hand on the 
Sabbath day in Galilee. ( Matt. 12 : 9-14 ; Mark 3:1-6; Luke 
6 . 6-11 ) 8. The healing of the centurion's servant at Caper- 
naum. ( Matt. 8 . 5-13 ; Luke 7 : 1-10.) 9. The healing of a 
demoniac m Galilee. ( Matt. 12 :22-37 ; Mark 3 : 19-30 ; Luke 
11:14, 15, 17-23.) 10. The raising of the daughter of Jairus 
from death and the healing of a woman with a bloody flux, at 
Capernaum. ( Matt. 9 : 18-26 ; Mark 5 : 22-43 ; Luke 8 : 41-56.) 
11. The healing of two blind men and the casting out of a 



Dtptne pealing- 97 



miracles. Says Arthur in ''Tongue of Fire": 
"It is a grand and memorable thing to see 
the sea dried up, or to see the human mind 
illuminated with the light of prophecy, or the 
gift of tongues; but the highest manifestation 
of a power above nature, is when the bad sud- 
denly become good; the impure, pure; when a 
clean thing is brought out of an unclean; when 
the earthly becomes heavenly; . . . when the 
Ethiopian changes his skin, and the leopard 
his spots." Such miracles of spiritual trans- 
formation occur every day. If the day of the 
greatest miracles is not past, who will say that 
the day of smaller ones is past; or why deny 

dumb spirit at Capernaum. ( Matt. 9 : 27-34.) 12. The heal- 
ing of the daughter ot the Syrophenician woman in the region 
of Tyre and Sidon. (Matt. 15:21-28; Mark 7:24-30.) 13. 
The heaUng of a deaf and dumb man in Decapolis. ( Matt. 
15 . 29, 30 ; Mark 7 : 31-37.) 14. The heahng of a bhnd man 
in Bethsaida (Julias). (Mark 8: 22-26.) 15. The heahng of 
a demoniac in the region of Caesarea Philippi. (Matt. 17: 
14-21; Mark 9:14-29; Luke 9:37-43.) 16. The healing of 
ten lepers in Samaria. (Luke 17:11-19.) 17. The healing 
of a blind man m Jerusalem. (John 9:1-41.) 18. The 
healing of the infirm woman on the Sabbath m Perea. 
(Luke 13:10-21.) 19. The healing ot the man who had 
the dropsy in Perea. (Luke 14:2-6.) 20. The healing of 
two blind men near Jericho. (Matt. 20:29-34; Mark 10: 
46-52; Luke 18:35-43.) 21. The healing of the ear of 
Malchus. (Luke 22:50, 51.) 

7 



98 CI?e Ctjorn in tl?e ^leslj. 

one miracle while contending for a greater one? 
But we are not now to theorize, but to deal 
with hard facts. There is abundant historical 
evidence that miraculous healing occurred in 
unbroken succession in the church for three 
hundred years after Christ, and has been con- 
stantly occurring in sporadic instances ever 
since. What will we do with these facts? 

To attempt to explain away the evidences of 
miraculous healing in modern times, as do Dr. 
A. A. Hodge and Dr. J. M. Buckley, and many 
others, by ignoring in them the supernatural 
element, and classifying them with the phenom- 
ena of superstition, mesmerism, Mormonism, and 
spiritualism, is most detrimental to the cause of 
Christianity. The faith cure of Rev. S. H. Piatt 
was no jugglery. There is as good historical 
evidence (if not better) that Melancthon, Bax- 
ter, the Prince of Wales, Minnie Walters, of 
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Sarah M. Fow- 
ble, near Dayton, Ohio, were miraculously healed, 
as that Christ arose from the grave. We cannot 
consistently reject the evidence of these latter- 
, day miracles without rejecting the evidences of 
every miracle, ancient and modern; and the 
skeptics will ridicule such defenders of miracles 
as Drso Hodge and Buckley, by saying, <^You 



DtDtne i^ealtng. 99 



believe in miracles wrought eighteen hundred 
years ago, and at a distance so remote that no 
investigation of their genuineness is possible; 
but if anything of a miraculous reputation 
appears to-day, you rule it out of court at once, 
and impugn its witnesses as 'religious enthusi- 
asts and sentimentalists, ^\4thout sobriety of 
judgment or accuracy of statement.'" What is 
the matter with some of our modern prophets, 
that they are found with the unbelieving Sauls? 
When Professor Tyndall impugned the prayer- 
cure theory, he received such a church mauling 
as has not been given to any public man in this 
generation; but now, when eminent doctors and 
expounders of Christianity repeat his offense, 
we hear no outcry against them "0 temporj 
mores!" This doctrine that the Lord still 
heals the sick in answer to prayer, seems to be- 
come distasteful to our scientific theologians, 
because they are so much given, in these days' 
to handling every divine question with the steel 
fingers of logic, instead of grasping it with the 
living touch of faith. That God, in answer to 
prayer and faith, without the use of knife, or 
drug, or hypnotism, should cure a crippled limb 
or a diseased lung, is too incredible and won- 
derful for the scientific men of to-day. It is 



100 Cf?e Ct?orn in ttje ^lesl?. 

indeed woDderfiil — not that God can cure, but 
that we are so unbelievijig ! Surely, the age of 
divine healing is not gone, unless, forsooth, the 
age of faith is gone. 

III. Have we reason for believing that God 
will heal every one in answer to prayer? 

Were it not thai there are veritable cases of 
disappointment in curing invalids by the genuine 
imploring of divine interposition, we would con- 
clude that faith-prayer, independent of medicinal 
remedies, was an infallible panacea for all bodily 
suffering. But there are facts and facts. While 
there are well-authenticated instances of instan- 
taneous healing from the various forms of func- 
tional, chronic, and organic diseases, there are 
also notable instances of failures. God did not 
remove Paul's thorn, though he thrice prayed 
for its removal as earnestly and devoutly as 
Knox thrice prayed for Scotland, or as Christ 
thrice prayed for deliverance from the cup. God 
raised up the Prince of Wales from his dying 
bed in answer to England's day of fasting and 
prayer for his recovery; but when our nation's 
idol. President Garfield, was petitioned for at 
a throne of grace by a nation of equally pious 
souls, as importunate almost as the woman m 
the parable of the unjust judge, he sufifered 



Dtptne fjealing, 101 



aiul (lied, and that while heaven was filled 
with prayers for his recovery. It is needless 
to cite numerous parallel cases of prayer for 
the sick, and show that, under exactly similar 
circumstances, one was a success and the other 
a failure. We may never be able to understand 
why the Lord heals one and not another in 
answer to the prayer of faith, but w^e know 
that if there were a provision or a promise 
upon which every request for healing could be 
granted, no one would ever neeH to be sick or 
die. Death could be abolished, and mortal man 
might at once become immortal. While God 
can and does give health to those who ask 
him, yet in his infinite wisdom he reserves the 
right of giving or withholding from his crea- 
tures whatever is best for them and for the 
general purpose of his most gracious will. 

The atonement is the divine remedial agency 
for the redemption of the souls and bodies of 
men, begun in this life and perfected in the 
life to come. Paith-prayer is the human agency 
by which we may appropriate all the benefits 
of this atonement. But that wo may under- 
stand why God should invariably forgive sins 
in answer to genuine repentance and prayer, 
and not also invariably heal diseases on the 



102 Clje Ct?orn in tl)e ^leslj. 

same terms, we must consider the different re- 
lations that the soul and the body sustain to 
the atonement of Christ, 1. Sin has its seat 
in the soul; sickness, in the body. 2. The 
soul is of primary, the body of secondary, im- 
portance. 3. The atonement is an accomplished 
fact; primarily for the soul, secondarily for the 
body. , 4. Healing, like forgiveness, is a benefit 
conditioned upon faith in the Atoner and the 
atonement. 5. Usually, and on account of erro- 
neous teaching ^id accepted tradition, men have 
more faith in divine forgiveness than in divine 
healing. This helps to account for the differ- 
ence in the number of their occurrence. 6. It 
is also accounted for by the fact that for the 
cure of the soul there is only one remedy, 
namely, its miraculous regeneration by the 
Spirit; for the body God has created numerous 
natural remedies. 7. Also, by the fact that sin 
is only evil, without any beneficial influences 
on the sinner, while sickness is often providen- 
tial, disciplinary, and hence, under God, some- 
times a blessing. For these reasons, Avhen God 
converts a man's soul, he does not also neces- 
sarily convert his body. But hereditary evil, 
or sickness, as the remnant of a sin-cursed 
bodyj may become the occasion of special sup- 



Dtptne pealing* 103 



plication; for its removal is within the province 
of the atonement and the power of God, and 
will surely be granted if so be the divine will. 
The supernatural power to heal is no longer 
one of the ^'unknown quantities" of Christ, 
but his will concerning each one's affliction is 
mysterious and unknown. 

What now is the conclusion we have reached 
after an examination of the scriptural, philo- 
sophical, and historical ground of the subject 
as tested by the three foregoing comprehensive 
questions? It is this: Christ has covenanted 
Avith his people to save them ultimately from 
all bodily maladies; often he does it naturally, 
sometimes supernaturally, in this life, in answer 
to faith and intercession; often he permits them 
to suffer and die, because, like Asa, they seek 
^'not to the Lord, but to the physicians" only. 
(11. Chron. 16:12, 13.) It is our right and 
privilege to ask for divine healing, even though 
God should deny our request, for wise and 
benevolent reasons unknown to us now, yet 
with the assurance of faith that it is better 
to ask and fail than not to ask at all; 
for thereby we may receive a blessed healing 
that otherwise could not have been obtained, 
or else its equivalent, or, at least, learn by 



104 CI?e Cf?orn in ttje ^lesl?, 

humble- submission to know the divine will 
concerning our affliction. Before asking the 
Lord for supernatural aid, we should first 
exhaust all known natural remedies, for God 
will not do for us what we can do for our- 
selves, and God will "help them that help 
themselves'^; but when all human efforts fail, 
then " God helps them w4io cannot help them- 
selves '' or find help in others. 

What then is our duty when we are sick? 
Evidently, to use all the available means for 
our recovery. First, let it not be forgotten that 
among the resources of self-help the greatest 
is mind-power, the most powerful force in the 
human universe. " The mind can kill and the 
mind can cure." Imagination sometimes pro- 
duces a mental epidemic. When General Grant 
was suffering from cancer of the throat, scores 
of people called upon Dr. Slirady, his physician, 
to be treated for incipient cancer when they 
had only a slight catarrhal irritation. When 
the late Kaiser Frederick was attacked with 
that cancerous difficulty, it was said that all 
Germany had sore throats. Persons have been 
shot dead with blank cartridges. An Edin- 
burgh criminal died from a supposed loss of 
blood, when it was only warm water trickling 



Dtptne pealing/ 105 



over his arm, after being barely pricked by the 
surgeon. If the mind can "kill/' it can also 
"cure." "Will to be well," wrote one of our 
greatest thinkers to a suffering friend. Douglas 
Jerrold, the English author and journalist, was 
attacked, from overwork, w^ith typhoid fevero 
The case was severe and critical. Finally, he 
lay at death's door from what the doctors 
called nervous exhaustion. A consultation of 
physicians gave no hope. At length, the family 
physician informed him that "medical skill had 
been exhausted — he raust die'^ "What!" he 
exclaimed, "die — Idle — and leave my wife and 
these children at the mercy of a world's cold 
charities? By the gods, I won't die'^ And he 
did not die, but from that moment began to 
mend and in a few months was restored to 
health. Here, physical remedies, aided by will 
power, without any divine assistance, saved his 
life. If we are sick and refuse medicine and 
the doctor, and then die, it may be our own 
fault; If we take medical treatment, and yield 
to despondency by refusing to cultivate the re- 
viving mfluencQ, of a cheerful, hopeful spirit, 
and die, it may be our own fault. If we take 
medicine, apply the stimulus of mind, and 
neglect to pray for divine help, and then die. 



106 Ct?e Cf?orn in tl?e ^lest?* 

it may be our own fault. But if we take 
medicine, apply the psychic energy, and pray, — 
that is, do all we can, and then die^ we may 
be sure that it is the will of God that it 
should be so, and best for all concerned. We 
believe that many are dead that might yet 
live; and that many are dead for whom noth- 
ing could prevail; that many are now sick that 
might be cured, and others sick for whom there 
is no cure. 

But is there no infallible, ultimate remedy 
for sin and sickness? Shall disease and death 
forever continue to desolate the earth? Shall 
there be no stop to the ravages of disease that 
separate friends and loved ones and fill our 
eyes with bitter tears? Is there nothing above 
or below the stars that can conquer this con- 
queror of Adam's race? Yes, thank God, yes. 
The consummate triumphs of the gospel will 
do it, in the day when the "redeemed of the 
Lord shall return, and come with singing, . • . 
and sorrow and mourning [and sickness] shall 
flee away." In that city where there are no 
sw^amps, or poisons, or ' malaria, or heat, or 
cold, or sin, there will be no sickness or death, 
for "the former things are passed away." 
There is the "Tree of Life, whose leaves are 



Dtptne i^ealing* 107 



for the healing of the nations/' That Tree is 
even here; and " unto you that fear my name 
shall the Sun of righteousness arise with heal- 
ing in- his wings" (Mai. 4:2). 



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